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Halo 5: Guardians |OT4| You picked a helluva week to join up

BR Starts Kappa

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Akai__

Member
I wonder what those guys have been upto since losing the Doom contract...

please be halo

They are still working on their own IP.

I still don't see why people like Certain Affinity that much. They do these overly busy maps, with storm clouds that make your FPS drop, shadows where you can't make out a Spartan inside them and then they also slap a color filter over the map that makes you want to puke. They would ruin the H3A maps, just like they ruined the H2A maps. Seriously, no thanks if the quality is the same. If the quality is on par with the maps they did for Reach, then maybe.
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
They are still working on their own IP.

I still don't see why people like Certain Affinity that much. They do these overly busy maps, with storm clouds that make your FPS drop, shadows where you can't make out a Spartan inside them and then they also slap a color filter over the map that makes you want to puke. They would ruin the H3A maps, just like they ruined the H2A maps. Seriously, no thanks if the quality is the same. If the quality is on par with the maps they did for Reach, then maybe.

I'll take what I can get with little complaint but certainly wouldn't mind some visual restraint.
 
IMO The only way that Halo 3 Anniversary makes sense is if they ship it on PC too, all of this of course due to the lack of Halo 3 on PC I mean we already have Halo 3 running at 1080p 60fps on the Xbox One we don't really need another "Anniversary" on a console but on PC? sounds logical
 

Trup1aya

Member
They are still working on their own IP.

I still don't see why people like Certain Affinity that much. They do these overly busy maps, with storm clouds that make your FPS drop, shadows where you can't make out a Spartan inside them and then they also slap a color filter over the map that makes you want to puke. They would ruin the H3A maps, just like they ruined the H2A maps. Seriously, no thanks if the quality is the same. If the quality is on par with the maps they did for Reach, then maybe.

Good points, but I've got issue with the quality and quantity of the maps that 343i was able to produce in house. my thinking it that with some of the work outsourced, the lighter work load could lead to better content.
 
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From Reddit, someone made a thread asking for the link to Frank's promise to explain what happened with TMCC once it's all fixed. I'm telling ya man, almost 2 years later and it's still fresh on the memories of many. This will for sure negatively impact the marketing machine for Halo 6, much like it did for Halo 5. TMCC needs to be relaunched or something, and a free Reach update for those who have TMCC.
 
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From Reddit, someone made a thread asking for the link to Frank's promise to explain what happened with TMCC once it's all fixed. I'm telling ya man, almost 2 years later and it's still fresh on the memories of many. This will for sure negatively impact the marketing machine for Halo 6, much like it did for Halo 5. TMCC needs to be relaunched or something, and a free Reach update for those who have TMCC.

We will likely never get an honest post-mortem for MCC unless there is some crazy shakeup at MS and 343i. There is simply no way to do it without embarassing someone, because some people made some very, very bad choices.

I think strategically for them, there's a higher risk from the negative coverage of the mistakes they made than rewards from placating people still salty about MCC to the point of being turned off the brand.
 
We will likely never get an honest post-mortem for MCC unless there is some crazy shakeup at MS and 343i. There is simply no way to do it without embarassing someone, because some people made some very, very bad choices.

I think strategically for them, there's a higher risk from the negative coverage of the mistakes they made than rewards from placating people still salty about MCC to the point of being turned off the brand.
Maybe, but it's arguable that explaining what went wrong and amending its issues would be better for 343 because they can control that conversation as improvements are made. Leaving it as is only leaves that bitterness and distrust, something that's becoming a hot topic lately. Look at what's going on with No Man'y Sky right now. These things will be at the forefront of discussions going forward, especially with developers who have questionable track records.

Might be better to control that conversation and turn it into something positive than to let things go unsaid, further polluting whatever future messages they want to get across. Breaking that trust and never speaking a word about it can cause some damage financially. This is something many people are aware of, so I don't necessarily think it would do more harm than good if they eat some of that humble pie and try to do what's right. People generally look highly at strategies like that, and we've seen how fickle gamers can be when fed even the smallest of morsels to give them hope.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Multiple studio leads have talked in interviews after that post was made that the MCC was too large a project in too short a time given to work on it, including Bonnie, etc. I also think Frankie was specifically talking about dedis in that post? And they made a change where no new Halo game will now release without a beta, so far they've held to that with 5 and Wars 2 both having betas.

It'd really be too hard to give a whole post mortem on what happened with the MCC without giving the appearance of throwing someone under the bus, even if one doesn't mean to, people can still interpret it as such. I think at this point it'd be used more as a schoolyard "ooooooooooooooooooooo" against some developers and less "huh, damn, development is .. complicated" that some would extract from it. In all the retro-decompile of the code situation, you also have to remember people are involved.

edit:

Bonnie quote

"We've taken full accountability and we obviously let the fans down. That's crushing to our studio as well. I think we're doing everything to make sure that that will never happen again. [...] You will never see us not do a beta again because there were a lot of things we couldn't see when we stood up externally."

Not even sure what else more there is to say.
 
They could just repeat that, but this time have it fully fixed; that's the important part. I don't necessarily think it's a matter of giving specifics as to what went wrong and calling individual titles/teams/people out as that can be assumed anyway, rather just admit fault again then release the One Patch To Rule Them All™.

All they did was say sorry and left the game as a stain on the franchise, whereas there's an opportunity to shut everyone up for good by fixing it and further emphasizing how this franchise is in good hands going forward. Control the message.
 

Karl2177

Member
Multiple studio leads have talked in interviews after that post was made that the MCC was too large a project in too short a time given to work on it, including Bonnie, etc. I also think Frankie was specifically talking about dedis in that post? And they made a change where no new Halo game will now release without a beta, so far they've held to that with 5 and Wars 2 both having betas.

It'd really be too hard to give a whole post mortem on what happened with the MCC without giving the appearance of throwing someone under the bus, even if one doesn't mean to, people can still interpret it as such. I think at this point it'd be used more as a schoolyard "ooooooooooooooooooooo" against some developers and less "huh, damn, development is .. complicated" that some would extract from it. In all the retro-decompile of the code situation, you also have to remember people are involved.

edit:

Bonnie quote

"We've taken full accountability and we obviously let the fans down. That's crushing to our studio as well. I think we're doing everything to make sure that that will never happen again. [...] You will never see us not do a beta again because there were a lot of things we couldn't see when we stood up externally."

Not even sure what else more there is to say.

But this was similar to the whole 14 Day Buy and Play thing. We saw during pre-release tournaments and events that the game was crashing, but they waved it off as an old build. Even for the launch tournament, they claimed the crashes were because of an old build. If you're giving away copies of your game at the tournament, why wouldn't you also use copies for the tournament? They lied through their teeth about the old builds. If you're going to take accountability, do it before you take $60 out of my pocket, not after.
 
Thank god, I have been having rubber banding issues all day and was worried it was my home internet. Been having a lot of issues with Comcast lately and was worried they didn't fix anything.
 
I don't know why companies like MS still believe you can only put out PR positivity. There is a famous case from Intel that really highlights how a brand can rebound with the right strategy and restore consumer confidence, even months/years after a fateful event and OR mishandling/denial.

Que long ass IT post:

In June 1994, Intel discovered the floating-point unit flaw in the Pentium microprocessor. June 13th, 1994 shortly after adding a Pentium system to his group of computers, but was unable to eliminate other possible factors (such as programming errors, motherboard chipsets, etc.) until October 19, 1994. On October 24th, 1994 he reported the flaw he encountered to Intel. According to Professor Thomas Nicely, the person that he contacted at Intel later admitted to Intel being aware of the flaw since May 1994. The flaw was discovered by Intel during testing of the FPU for its new P6 core, which was first used in the Pentium Pro.

Now what did they do with this clusterfuck of technical, flawed product, sales, marketing, consumer denial/confidence etc. Did Intel handle the problem correctly?

On November 7, 1994 the story first broke in an article published in Electronic Engineering Times, "In the story, Intel says it has corrected the glitch in subsequent runs of the chip, and Steve Smith of Intel dismisses the importance of the flaw, saying, "This doesn't even qualify as an errata (sic)." So I would say no they did not handle it right at first.

What did Intel do to satisfy customers concerned about the flaw?

On December 20, 1994, in response to the public's mounting pressure, Intel announces plans for a total recall, replacement and destruction of all the flawed Pentium microprocessors. On January 17, 1995, Intel announces a pre-tax charge of 475 million dollars against their earnings, ostensibly the total cost associated with replacement of flawed microprocessors.

Why did I send this to a Halo forum about MCC, H5 and future game sales?

Basically that financial year of Intel remains today as one of the great negative brand exposure turn around to become one of the most recognised brands on the planet. This strategy and standing by your product for the global consumers and media to spectate moved Intel into the top #4 brands worldwide. You can't pay for that sort of marketing, many have tried.

To me this highlights what 343/Xbox could or need to do rather than waiting for a few game versions to pass so gamers forget or a new generation buy in. When you combine the Xbone's launch and MCC it takes a large investment of technical, financial and customer service to restore a brand IMO. It can be done very successfully.

Halo 5 really delivered a great game and that goes some of the way to restoring confidence, however, when I still load up MCC solo or with friends it's a painstaking reminder of failure and an ill-purchase (multiplayer and reliability wise). I place that both with 343 for the game and Xbox as a platform in flux at the time. When I think of my N64 or SNES or Gameboy I can still load up a game years/decades later and enjoy the game. Can I say that for MCC?

What else is there left to do? Here's some options:

1. Make it work, fully as intended. Had they invested in MCC continuously to this day it could have been updated and stable for inclusion with any Xbone S or future sales. It also progresses consumer confidence.

2. Give it away as Games with Gold.

3. Provide credit on movie rentals or other game sales for owners of MCC. It's a cheap and fast method with little resources and also a lessened financial impact for Xbox as they save on actual costs e.g. development. or profit margins.

4. Make a full ViDoc with all the studio heads involved. Front up and explain it in technical detail. It would be interesting to see and empathise with the studio/staff while enabling us a peek behind the development curtain. Confrontation... understanding... something something.

5. Take the great work of H5 dedis/regions in its current form and apply that back to MCC. There is no way MCC is currently on anything but P2P with horrible matchmaking filters/parameters to a large percentage of games. Far from "On dedicated servers", coop = nope, multi-nope, P2P = yep. Marketing or inclusion *dot points aside that statement will ring in the ears of Halo fans for a very long time.

6. Reinvest in MCC becoming something that "archives" all future Halo multiplayer games e.g. H5 gets rolled into MCC eventually. Make it a solid reason to keep your gold subscription alive and F2P as Halo multiplayer games age. I know many return to play games, just look at the success of the mini-NES.


Why do all that? To clear the air and enable the next game to stand on its own. Halo 5 is arguably and objective one of the best Halo games to date, it could have sold better. Halo 6 should be free to push its own agenda without the past reflecting on its sales numbers.
 

Tomash

Member
Titanfall 2 has Destiny's directional radar on top of the minimap. Black Ops 3 also has directional radar, as a perk. Considering 343's MO, directional radar confirmed for Halo 6???
 
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