Halo is beyond saving and Xbox needs to forget it exists – Reader’s Feature

Halo Infinite – disappointingly finite (pic: Microsoft)

A reader is upset at the current state of Halo Infinite and suggests drastic measure for revitalising the franchise.

I’d never played a first person shooter until I tried Halo: Combat Evolved on the original Xbox. Halo 2 was the first online game I ever played, and I have such fond memories of Halo 3 on the Xbox 360, playing online with friends, that I think it might actually be my favourite game ever. Obviously, that was back in the Bungie days, when Halo was the biggest game around – bigger even than Call Of Duty – and things have been slowly but steadily getting worse ever since they left and 343 Industries took over.

I’ve liked parts of most of the games since, and Halo Infinite’s multiplayer seemed pretty good at first, but as is now well documented, it all feel apart pretty much straight away after launch; until we got to the ludicrous point where it’s now a complete irrelevance on Steam – less popular than many indie games – and probably not much better on Xbox.

This was supposed to be a full-on live service game, supported for many years to come, but within three months it was obvious it was already dead. You don’t come back from that. They can’t just shrug their shoulders and move on to Halo Infinite 2. Even changing everything, from the game to the developer isn’t enough. First of all, they’ve got to admit that Halo as it exists now is dead and means a suitable period of mourning.

If I was Phil Spencer, I’d lay down a rule saying no new Halo for at least 10 years. No spin-offs, no remakes, and certainly no sequels. Just let the shame of Halo Infinite be quietly forgotten and get people to the point where they actually miss the games. For me that’s the most important step right there.

If a new Halo comes out in a year or two it’s just going to be more empty product churned out solely to keep the game’s name alive, with no chance for people to anticipate it or the developer to spend the time necessary to make it good.

No, Halo has to go away for a long time and people have got to miss it and want it back, like a long lost friend. 10 years may sound like a long time but an ordinary triple-A games takes five to six years to make nowadays, and Halo needs to not be ordinary.

Microsoft needs to use that time to set up a new studio to work on it. 343 are not up to the job, that’s obvious for everyone to see, as they have failed time and time again. Not by a little bit but spectacularly and for no good reason. Why does the most important sequel for Xbox in the modern era look like a mediocre Xbox 360 game? Why was The Master Chief Collection broken for so long? Why did they seem to not learn any of its lessons for Halo Infinite?

It needs to be new blood. No veterans of 343 or Bungie or Certain Affinity, but fresh minds that love the franchise and want to work on it, want to reinvent it and make it the biggest shooter in the world once again.

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I’m not telling them what to make it, whether it’s open world or not, that’s their business. It doesn’t really matter, what matters is the quality, not the form. That’s the one and only thing they should be worrying about.

So that’s my plan. Pretend Halo is dead for at least a decade and then resurrect it with all new people behind the scenes, and all new ideas. When something goes this wrong you’ve got to start from scratch, with a new concept, or things are just going to get worse and worse, and I’d hate to think what that will look like, given the current state of Halo Infinite.

By reader Terry Gold

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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A reader is upset at the current state of Halo Infinite and suggests drastic measure for revitalising the franchise.