Support NeoGAF

[mckmas8808]

How? again its a really bad example. It would be different if people had subscriptions to a VR service, but nothing like that exists. You're stretching & failing to make your point.

The same way MS for years used their deep pockets to help mitigate any losses that the gaming division had for Xbox. Is it nice for a division within a larger company to sustain itself and then be profitable? Yes! But it doesn't always happen that way. Not when some mega-companies first start out with a new division.

Do you not realize that with MS making so much money with Azure and their Office products, that it allows them to have lose leaders else where?

 

[Leyasu]

I think it's fair to say this game is pretty much dead on Steam; peak concurrent players barely cracked 10K, regular concurrent is somewhere around 6K-7K. Even Forza Horizon 4 is pulling higher concurrent players than Halo Infinite. As for Xbox player counts, we don't have any official numbers, but you'd think their marquee IP would be in at least the Top 3. It's not even in the Top 10 anymore.

Here's the current Steam Top 20:

	Name	Current Players	Last 30 Days	Peak Players	Hours Played
1.	Lost Ark	778,525		1,324,761	263,815,365
2.	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive	757,370		989,573	471,817,887
3.	Dota 2	656,824		733,941	336,106,632
4.	PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS	301,768		532,109	180,797,509
5.	Apex Legends	250,444		392,998	141,539,667
6.	Destiny 2	142,182		289,895	44,335,695
7.	Grand Theft Auto V	105,104		155,111	68,665,374
8.	Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel	84,255		240,810	76,809,939
9.	Rust	83,287		164,990	64,354,916
10.	Team Fortress 2	75,371		93,238	50,795,241
11.	NARAKA: BLADEPOINT	72,931		143,028	38,329,773
12.	Wallpaper Engine	66,236		88,349	41,681,004
13.	FIFA 22	60,871		89,499	31,751,928
14.	MIR4	59,405		62,580	41,109,786
15.	Football Manager 2022	54,777		84,102	36,716,258
16.	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege	50,075		78,263	32,331,642
17.	ARK: Survival Evolved	49,289		87,690	38,829,059
18.	Total War: WARHAMMER III	48,534		166,519	16,755,357
19.	Path of Exile	43,596		158,140	30,274,113
20.	Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Meanwhile, Halo Infinite is at #128 with 6,191 concurrent players (and for further reference, Forza Horizon 5 currently has 10,975 concurrent players). I can't think of a scenario where one can say Halo Infinite is a genuine success: they got the core gameplay mechanics solidified and polished very well, but there's very little to do with them. The game seems severely content-starved and that's a death knell for a live service game.

Lack of a confirmed roadmap is also hurting it, they should probably get on that ASAP. But this might also be a wake-up call for Microsoft to finally really clean up 343i, because there's no reason the game should've released as it did even after a full year's delay. I honestly think the future of this IP lies in the hands of one of the other FPS houses they have (iD, Obsidian (New Vegas), Bethesda (Fallout), Infinity Ward, Treyarch etc.), with only a core subset of 343i talent involved (including Joseph Staten). Meanwhile maybe the rest of 343i gets retooled as a support studio for other teams and just do bulk content generation for future Halo games.

I simply can't see 343i spearheading the development of future Halo games any further, it's probably time to change it up.



The core gameplay loop for multiplayer is arguably the strongest Halo's ever been in that regard. But a live service game needs a lot more than that to retain the majority of its players.

And there are issues with Halo Infinite's BattlePass and progression system making even a lot of core fans upset and dropping out, that's a legitimate problem. The sooner they fix that and the lack of content, the sooner the game can get back a healthy playerbase, the type you'd expect for a marquee FPS that should be leading the pack or among the leaders of the pack.

Right now Halo Infinite is almost an also-ran in comparison to the Apex Legends, Destiny 2, VALORANT, etc, at least on PC. Even on Xbox, it's lost a lot of player retention and given player retention is a metric Microsoft values highly, they probably aren't particularly happy about it.

Although I have enjoyed all of 343s halos, nobody can say that they don’t need a massive shake up.

If their engine is a problem they should fucking scrap it too. Something must be hindering their ability to make/do things swiftly, and the talk is that the engine is the problem. They should address this

 

[oldergamer]

The same way MS for years used their deep pockets to help mitigate any losses that the gaming division had for Xbox. Is it nice for a division within a larger company to sustain itself and then be profitable? Yes! But it doesn't always happen that way. Not when some mega-companies first start out with a new division.

Do you not realize that with MS making so much money with Azure and their Office products, that it allows them to have lose leaders else where?

You're honestly touching on some really obvious points, all of which isn't what I'm arguing. Gamepass itself being subscriber driven makes it self sustaining once it hits a certain threshold. There's more to just saying, " is game pass profitable?". Gamepass now encompasses other services, could gaming, hosting services, multiplayer (xbox live) & PC gaming. Its obviously doing well enough to include more then it once was when introduced. It has 400+ games available on it and they keep increasing the catalog.

Anyway, gamepass as a business (separated) is sustainable. That is the key word that spencer mentioned. They are looking at it as a business, and not a loss leader. Again, I'll take spencer's word over yours on this.

 

[Ozriel]

Yes, the game was only in development for 6 years, and it was delayed an entire extra year and still managed to come in hot

Your point?

The clock for post launch support starts... post-launch. What's the relevance of quoting how long the game was in development for?

 

[Banjo64]

Is this guy on crack?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I can agree with this. The gameplay is fantastic. But like I said, I've maxed out my battle pass so I've set the game aside for now. And this is me playing a few hours a week. For those core fans they probably maxed out their battle passes weeks ago and now there is no new content dropping. The current game works for me, and I'm not one that is terribly interested in progression in a multiplayer fps. I know COD has really shifted the focus of progression in these types of games, but I can take it or leave it. I know a lot of others don't feel that way.

But to say that Halo Infinite is dog shit is wildly hyperbolic. Sure, it needs more content, but as you said the gameplay loop is Halo's strongest yet. They need to build off that, and yeah, preferably in a quick manner.

They also could be communicating with the community a bit better, to be fair. But yeah, the core game mechanics are sound, it's just that if there's not a lot to do with them, what does it matter to the wider player base? In your case for example you're already done with the BattlePass and that's just with a few hours per day.

Live service games thrive or die off consistent content, 343i's finding that out the hard way.

Although I have enjoyed all of 343s halos, nobody can say that they don’t need a massive shake up.

If their engine is a problem they should fucking scrap it too. Something must be hindering their ability to make/do things swiftly, and the talk is that the engine is the problem. They should address this

IIRC wasn't it reveal SlipSpace was just a rebranding of the engine they were already using? I've heard that mentioned a couple of times. But in any case, they definitely do need a new engine, that's for sure.

I get that you'll have a subset of hardcore players who will be upset if that means a change to anything physics-wise or speed-wise that can cause a deviation from what they consider the "Halo formula", but things have to change at some point. Tho for right now I honestly think Infinite's bigger issues are the progression system and lack of content.

If they're coming with that Battle Royale mode that's rumored, it'll be a big boost.

Spoiler

Also ironically would verify Dr.Disrespect even further x3

 

[FireFly]

It can be burning cash, yet be sustainable at the same time. Currently FaceBook is doing that with their VR division. It's burning through cash, but it will not cripple the company anytime soon.

Spencer's quote specifically implied they are not "burning cash right now for some future pot of gold at the end". I take his comments to mean that the gaming division is sustainable, i.e they are not losing money on it.

 

[mckmas8808]

Spencer's quote specifically implied they are not "burning cash right now for some future pot of gold at the end". I take his comments to mean that the gaming division is sustainable, i.e they are not losing money on it.

Yes, the gaming division is 100% profitable even. We are only talking about the GamePass part of this. Not Xbox overall.