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Halo Infinite Firefight Announced - December 5th

gothmog

Gold Member
Baldur’s Gate was huge and dnd is big, the IP has been asleep for awhile though. And Alan Wake is a sequel people has frequently been requesting. New IPs would’ve sold less, zero doubt.
I guess? I feel like this year is great as far as genres represented and IPs that actually deserve sequels. If this year's GOTY list was the yearly installments of Madden, NBA, Soccer, and COD your point would be stronger.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
The mp gameplay in Infinite is great though

So do you think it would have the same player base today if it was a brand new IP? I don't.

Nah I don’t agree at all, the IP is extremely important for both mp and sp, if FF14 wasn’t called Final Fantasy it would have a fraction of the player count, if CoD had mp separately under another title it wouldn’t be near any top lists. Publishers even use big IPs to boost new studios and new games - ”from the creators of”.

I think if you rename FF14 and Halo Infinite, Final Fantasy retains significantly more players as a result of the IP effect. Plus, I don't think there's any comparison when you compare IP importance when it comes to multiplayer vs single player. The most successful multiplayer games on the market are original IP. That era is long gone for single player.
 

March Climber

Gold Member
I don't know if there even were "Splitgate players". Wasn't that game just a flash in the pan fad game that everyone played for a week or two?
Maybe, maybe not. We’ll never know if it’s staying power because the dev stupidly announced that they were ending support for the game, then announced a sequel, then closed the first game, then went radio silent afterwards.

They literally did every single wrong step when it comes to keeping a fanbase. As much crap as people give Overwatch 2, community migration was one of the few things that Blizzard did correctly.
Splitgate averaged 36k players in August 2021.
Halo Infinite hasn't cracked 6k average players in a month since early 2021.
I’m not saying Halo Infinite is the bastion for all Halo fans and ex-fans. I’m saying that it’s at least a decent alternative for the fanbase of that gameplay style. Their literal only options at this point are Destiny 2 or Halo Infinite.

These guys do not like CoD. They don’t like Battlefield/Battlefront. They don’t like Fortnite. They simply want to play more Halo.

If this were about 8-10 years ago I would have been one of those people as well, who had to choose between the two because that’s how fun Halo MP gameplay was to me.

But Steam is a multiplayer centric marketplace and Halo Infinites multiplayer launched day and date there (unlike God of War). So, it is.
Edit: Also ManaByte ManaByte is right. People who only use Steam numbers as a measurement constantly underestimate the console player numbers.

As a guy who follows MMOs, Console playercount has literally saved a few MMOs that were on the brink of death. I was salty because a few of my favorite MMOs from the PS360 gen could have potentially been saved this way. MMO is a genre with slim pickings on both modern consoles and for the few times a MMO dev remembers that consoles exist and release on them, they’re super thankful for the boon in player count.
 
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Fess

Member
I guess? I feel like this year is great as far as genres represented and IPs that actually deserve sequels. If this year's GOTY list was the yearly installments of Madden, NBA, Soccer, and COD your point would be stronger.
My point is that a popular brand always pull in more people and not just for Halo. It’s normal. No surprises. It’s why we have the number 16 behind FF even though it’s a new story with new characters every time instead of a new IP. They could call it something else entirely but they know the name itself will pull in X million people.

For a GOTY event where nominees are chosen by media and influencers other factors are more important than player count. There we can sometimes see smaller and new titles. CoD and FIFA doesn’t seem like titles chosen by that jury.
 

splattered

Member
Think i just saw a trailer for Halo TV series season 2 on FB? I didnt watch first season yet so cant confirm but i think? Lots of action and stuff in this one... looked good but im still weirded out by chief without his helmet haha
 

March Climber

Gold Member
Think i just saw a trailer for Halo TV series season 2 on FB? I didnt watch first season yet so cant confirm but i think? Lots of action and stuff in this one... looked good but im still weirded out by chief without his helmet haha
I’m ready for either the biggest double down in TV history or the biggest pivot in TV history.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Maybe, maybe not. We’ll never know if it’s staying power because the dev stupidly announced that they were ending support for the game, then announced a sequel, then closed the first game, then went radio silent afterwards.

They literally did every single wrong step when it comes to keeping a fanbase. As much crap as people give Overwatch 2, community migration was one of the few things that Blizzard did correctly.
I don't know. The internet told me how great Splitgate was when it was popping off. I tend not to listen to "the internet". People like to blame failures on everything except poor game design these days.

Edit: Also ManaByte ManaByte is right. People who only use Steam numbers as a measurement constantly underestimate the console player numbers.
Or is it "People who don't use Steamcharts as a barometer to measure player counts constantly overestimate console player numbers"?

I advocate for using a combination of the best available data we have. We see how it's doing on Steam (highly accurate data) and we see that Ark: Survival Evolved (an extremely janky pay to play game) is regularly more popular on XBox.

Halo Infinite regularly floats around Dead by Daylight on XBox. Dead by Daylight is 10x more popular on Steam than Halo Infinite.

As a guy who follows MMOs, Console playercount has literally saved a few MMOs that were on the brink of death. I was salty because a few of my favorite MMOs from the PS360 gen could have potentially been saved this way. MMO is a genre with slim pickings on both modern consoles and for the few times a MMO dev remembers that consoles exist and release on them, they’re super thankful for the boon in player count.
Obviously Halo is going to do better on XBox (% wise) than Steam. But we see pretty clearly how it's doing on XBox when we look at it's closest competition on that platform.

And again, I really think Halos numbers are buoyed by a small subset of nastolgia driven gamers. Ark and Dead by Daylight don't have that IP benefit.
 

March Climber

Gold Member
I don't know. The internet told me how great Splitgate was when it was popping off. I tend not to listen to "the internet". People like to blame failures on everything except poor game design these days.
I tend to avoid internet hype as well. That ends up making me feel behind on new releases(I’ve only played 3 2023 releases this year).

I believe in using facts as an argument as much as possible, as it works better than excuses. You can look up what the Splitgate dev did yourself to see how what I’ve said lines up. They made wrong move after wrong move.
Or is it "People who don't use Steamcharts as a barometer to measure player counts constantly overestimate console player numbers"?

I advocate for using a combination of the best available data we have. We see how it's doing on Steam (highly accurate data) and we see that Ark: Survival Evolved (an extremely janky pay to play game) is regularly more popular on XBox.
Because it’s been proven plenty of times before that console players and steam players aren’t always on the same page when it comes to player count and which games are played. NBA2k series has a player count in the millions yet at the same time it has a measly 8k-10k concurrent on Steam charts.

Logically, the conclusion one should come to isn’t ‘This game is dying/dead’ if it is constantly being announced that millions of players are online, in lobbies, purchasing MTX, etc. The numbers would not add up. Same goes for other sports games, especially Football Club/Fifa.

So yes, ManaByte ManaByte has a point whether you or I like it or not. We have to account for the unknown factor here and it sucks because we have no other concrete data to go by other than publisher announcements.

I’m not specifically trying to defend Halo in this post, I’m more trying to point out that Steam charts aren’t always the full truth. You’re working with a third of potential data. PC Gamepass and Xbox are the other two thirds.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I tend to avoid internet hype as well. That ends up making me feel behind on new releases(I’ve only played 3 2023 releases this year).

I believe in using facts as an argument as much as possible, as it works better than excuses. You can look up what the Splitgate dev did yourself to see how what I’ve said lines up. They made wrong move after wrong move.
We've had to hear arena shooter fans explain away why arena shooters bomb on the market for the last 10 years. It's always some bogus reason that avoids the core issue - arena shooters just aren't good multiplayer games anymore.

Arena shooter fans can't accept that so they jump to "This arena shooter failed because they used the wrong color palette on the Battle Pass" in the hope's that their beloved formula lives on.

Splitgate bombed because it was only fun to play for a few hours. The devs likely saw the awful player retention numbers and made last second hail mary choices to save the sinking ship to no avail.

Because it’s been proven plenty of times before that console players and steam players aren’t always on the same page when it comes to player count and which games are played. NBA2k series has a player count in the millions yet at the same time it has a measly 8k-10k concurrent on Steam charts.

Logically, the conclusion one should come to isn’t ‘This game is dying/dead’ if it is constantly being announced that millions of players are online, in lobbies, purchasing MTX, etc. The numbers would not add up. Same goes for other sports games, especially Football Club/Fifa.

So yes, ManaByte ManaByte has a point whether you or I like it or not. We have to account for the unknown factor here and it sucks because we have no other concrete data to go by other than publisher announcements.

I’m not specifically trying to defend Halo in this post, I’m more trying to point out that Steam charts aren’t always the full truth. You’re working with a third of potential data. PC Gamepass and Xbox are the other two thirds.

We see what Halo Infinite is doing on Steam.

We see what games Halo Infinite is competing with on Microsoft's own charts. (Ark + Dead by Daylight - two P2P games, Halo Infinite is free)

That's all that's needed.

I've been hearing "Halo is fixed", "Halo is good again", "If they only launched with this much content..." for the last year.

It's all bogus narrative because it's always said by someone who loved Halo back in the day, and we always see minimal player bumps on both Steamcharts and XBL Most Played List.

These are the same people who told everyone Halo Infinite multiplayer was great on the day it released. It wasn't. Multiplayer has evolved well past the Halo formula.

Btw, Destiny 2 has waaaaay better player numbers than Infinite. You can't drag that game through the mud and call Halo good. It's completely illogical.
 
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Mr.ODST

Member
It's all bogus narrative because it's always said by someone who loved Halo back in the day, and we always see minimal player bumps on both Steamcharts and XBL Most Played List.

These are the same people who told everyone Halo Infinite multiplayer was great on the day it released. It wasn't. Multiplayer has evolved well past the Halo formula.
Halo Infinite is better now though ...
 

March Climber

Gold Member
We've had to hear arena shooter fans explain away why arena shooters bomb on the market for the last 10 years. It's always some bogus reason that avoids the core issue - arena shooters just aren't good multiplayer games anymore.

Arena shooter fans can't accept that so they jump to "This arena shooter failed because they used the wrong color palette on the Battle Pass" in the hope's that their beloved formula lives on.

Splitgate bombed because it was only fun to play for a few hours. The devs likely saw the awful player retention numbers and made last second hail mary choices to save the sinking ship to no avail.
So you decided to not do any googling or research, ignore all valid points, and instead say that I’m making excuses for it(which I specifically said I wouldn’t do) and then make assumptions about what took place and why.

giphy.webp


We see what Halo Infinite is doing on Steam.

We see what games Halo Infinite is competing with on Microsoft's own charts. (Ark + Dead by Daylight - two P2P games, Halo Infinite is free)

That's all that's needed.

I've been hearing "Halo is fixed", "Halo is good again", "If they only launched with this much content..." for the last year.

It's all bogus narrative because it's always said by someone who loved Halo back in the day, and we always see minimal player bumps on both Steamcharts and XBL Most Played List.

These are the same people who told everyone Halo Infinite multiplayer was great on the day it released. It wasn't. Multiplayer has evolved well past the Halo formula.

Btw, Destiny 2 has waaaaay better player numbers than Infinite. You can't drag that game through the mud and call Halo good. It's completely illogical.
So you instead ignore my really valid point about NBA2k playercount and instead proceed to respond as if I’m defending Halo Infinite, still using steam numbers as a base, when I said it’s not about Halo, it’s about the fact that steam numbers don’t reveal all of the data.

giphy.webp


Also I didn’t drag Destiny through the mud anywhere in this thread. I said the game is slowly bleeding out it’s playerbase(which is true if you’ve paid attention to news around Bungie this month).
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Halo Infinite is better now though ...

I agree with you. It is.

It's still not a great, good, or even decent multiplayer game. It still suffers from 4 core issues that these updates aren't addressing.

1. It's a pitiful social experience where you're rarely communicating with teammates.

2. It's way too repetitive with its 30 second gameplay loop.

3. It forces players to play in a rigid, one way manner.

4. The progression is awful.

Give it more maps, better cosmetics, rinky dink game types etc...and you're still left with a horse in a cars world.
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Expecting the worse and hoping for the best.

But having this trailer premiere when GTA's trailer premieres will be a blood bath.
 

clarky

Gold Member
Expecting the worse and hoping for the best.

But having this trailer premiere when GTA's trailer premieres will be a blood bath.
We already know what it is. its just them having a bit of fun and releasing a trailer for the firefight mode.

Hardly a blood bath one way or the other.
 
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stickkidsam

Member
The contrast between the response on r/halo and here is quite jarring.
People who actively play the title - and are some of its fiercest critics - are pumped. FireFight’s been one of the most requested additions
It’s important to remember that content isn’t the only reason players found Infinite unappealing. The game has come a long way and the team deserves props.

The gameplay itself is still the same though as are most of the systems surrounding it. It just doesn’t feel like Halo for me. Maybe I’m in the minority with this complaint, but I always just end up going back to the MCC (or Halo 5 lol).
 
Halo. Full circle.

Can we just get the whole Halo ring at launch next time please?

Hype. Halo 5 firefight was fun as fuck and great local server networking. When are they going to learn a massively engaged long term audience is dying for quarterly campaign MMO coop shit.

Stand apart Halo, lean into your story and universe to explore, build, share...you know a huge ass persistent world mixing solo, coop, PvP, PvE and some fun Halo shit with friends driven by your behemoth Azure global network.

Christ you want subs, F2P, engagement, MTX, community and it's been sitting there like Destiny 1 & 2 all these years. Slipspace really should have been a far better vehicle to expand Halo online.
 
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EeDJN1c.gif


More people play battlefield V, I and 2142 on PC individually despite none of those being F2P, maybe its different on console or something where the game aims for you, I assume that's why people like Halo these days, the excessive aim assist.

as for who cares about the store? the people developing the game, that's why you don't have single player content because they cant sell you "just cosmetic" items for single player. So its quite important really.
I've been playing a ton of BFV again with the BF 1944 mod and I have to that it's probably the most complex arcade style FPS that's currently around.

There are so many intricacies of gameplay involved.

Things like having to lay down to ADS with LMG's and the fact that a single rifle bullet can kill an airplane if it's health is low enough, multi crewed tanks that take different percentages of damage depending on where they are hit, the fact that you can bash someone's head in and choke them in a full blown campaign style animation if they're laying on their back.
 
I've been playing a ton of BFV again with the BF 1944 mod and I have to that it's probably the most complex arcade style FPS that's currently around.

There are so many intricacies of gameplay involved.

Things like having to lay down to ADS with LMG's and the fact that a single rifle bullet can kill an airplane if it's health is low enough, multi crewed tanks that take different percentages of damage depending on where they are hit, the fact that you can bash someone's head in and choke them in a full blown campaign style animation if they're laying on their back.
Outside of cosmetic faction changes, what does the BF1944 mod change from a gameplay perspective? I'd love to jump back on BFV, I really liked it on release.
 
Outside of cosmetic faction changes, what does the BF1944 mod change from a gameplay perspective? I'd love to jump back on BFV, I really liked it on release.
It doesn't change any gameplay elements. It's purely a cosmetic client side mod that essentially just turns it into a proper looking WW2 game and because of this re-sparked my interest in it. If the mods changed the gameplay you would be at risk of getting banned. There are a decent amount of cheaters, so be aware of that but you can report them in the lobby and it usually kicks them if enough people do it.

There are other cool mods such as adding the BF1 font to the letters and HUD, alternate music mods such as the CoD: World at War soundtrack, mods that darken the wood on certain rifles, I even have one that replaces the Ross rifle with the m1917 Enfield that was in BF1.

I have no problems with the gameplay and with these mods it just makes the game easy on my eyes and enhances my immersion ten fold. Especially if you play it with no HUD.

Edit: It basically feels like I'm playing a WW2 version of BF1 now.
 
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Hudo

Member
So is Halo dead or not? Where are we now?
Depends on who you ask. The Sony people on here will say that Halo has always been dead. Xbox die-hards will say that the game is very much alive and always has been. And most people will a) continue to ignore the game if they haven't bought it since launch or b) might take a look at what's now and play it for a bit before dropping it again.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
Multiplayer has been picking back up. I'd still like to know if there's any future for single player DLC on Infinite, or if it's another cut and run to the next thing several years from now.
 

YukiOnna

Member
It's cool and I'm happy the MP side is flourishing (although some of these things should have been there at launch,) but I'd really like an update about what they'll be doing regarding Single Player Halo... I know Infinite's was basically canned, but any comment would be nice...
 

Dutchy

Member
The contrast between the response on r/halo and here is quite jarring.
People who actively play the title - and are some of its fiercest critics - are pumped.
TIL it requires being a ''fierce critic that actively plays the title'' to have any opinion on this game. What about the hundreds of thousands that quit and went back to MCC and other games? Or those that try it after every update only to be just as bored as before. So far it has only 1800 more players than MCC (3k vs 4.8 on steam). Is this really the resurgence people were hoping for? Latest installment + latest update vs 15 year old games with no developer support.

Game is inherently flawed. And only appealing to Xbox-console war enthousiasts since it's one of the very few things you can cling onto this gen. The fact you're reaching so hard that you're even willing to take in a few critics as a golden standard is marvelous.

FireFight’s been one of the most requested additions
And that's such a good thing. Wow, thank you 343i for giving us yet another, once-standard game-mode several years after the game dropped. I hope we get a working theater next!
 

ManaByte

Banned
All they had to do was get rid of the shop and FOMO to be perfect
What FOMO? Explain. The battle passes never go away. You can complete them at any time.

Edit: Also the shop? It’s a F2P game. How is a F2P shooter with free updates supposed to survive? Even paid shooters have skin shops now.
 
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Draugoth

Gold Member
What FOMO? Explain. The battle passes never go away. You can complete them at any time.

Edit: Also the shop? It’s a F2P game. How is a F2P shooter with free updates supposed to survive? Even paid shooters have skin shops now.

There are various items that were timed only, incluiding events and items that were promotional and go for hundreds of dollars on ebay.

There's one timed limited event right now that will end in 16 days and will never come back.
 

ManaByte

Banned
There are various items that were timed only, incluiding events and items that were promotional and go for hundreds of dollars on ebay.

There's one timed limited event right now that will end in 16 days and will never come back.

The timed events like Tenrai are free. If it's a paid pass there's not an expiration. People paying hundreds of dollars for a Mt. Dew skin are idiots for not buying a $1 bottle of soda for the code.

The current event pass, which is paid, acts like a battle pass and thus you can progress and unlock it whenever you want.
 

Draugoth

Gold Member
The timed events like Tenrai are free. If it's a paid pass there's not an expiration. People paying hundreds of dollars for a Mt. Dew skin are idiots for not buying a $1 bottle of soda for the code.

The current event pass, which is paid, acts like a battle pass and thus you can progress and unlock it whenever you want.

Do you think Hardcore halo fans would have stayed if the weekly skin rewards and timed event ones came back?
 
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Codes 208

Member
Do you think Hardcore hal ofans would have stayed if the weekly skin rewards and timed event ones came back?
Honestly no. I think too many of the halo hardcore fans got burned one too many times by 343.

Nothing short of going for the bungie era nostalgia will bring them back (and i mean like a fully dedicated halo 3 anniversary release or something, none of that $20 halo ce armor shit)
 

Vyse

Gold Member
Played a few matches today and it was really fun. Crazy how fast gameplay comes back.
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
It was fun, but it definitely also needs a mode that is not KotH, and just plain firefight; this mode is over too quickly
 

Phase

Member
So can I boot up Infinite and go play a permanent Team Snipers, Double Team, Invasion, MLG, or Assault playlist yet?
 

Taur007

Member
It would be a huge downgrade performance wise. Whatever they have the game running now does a great job.

And why UE5… I would go for an id tech engine instead if they have to switch engines
Exactly, I don't want halo to feel "heavy" like a lot of UE games do, doom is more light and floaty so that would definitely work better for halo I feel.
 

Three

Gold Member

Halo Infinite jumps to a 'Mostly Positive' Steam rating as Firefight makes its mark​


Another Windows Central article trying its best to make the old game stick, with its constant barrage of looking for some short lived metrics to talk about the game every other month. Still recovering from an entire article written from "It's overtaken Destiny 2 on xbox most played" which wasn't even true when the article was posted here because it was so short lived. The article and some people claiming it's somehow a trend (mostly Ozriel) but as usual halo infinite fell further and Destiny 2 went 8 places above it. Meanwhile BF2024 had a massive PC resurgence this year and barely gets talked about, because it doesn't have places like Windows Central acting as a constant hype man.
 
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I've been playing multiplayer Halo Infinite on and off for about a week and it is really fun. i lost interest in the campaign after about 3 hours though. It just made me want to play Halo 1/3 again...
 

RPS37

Member
It’s really fun and I can’t imagine how much better received the game would’ve been if it had launched with this mode.
 
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