That population drop though vs biggest selling game in franchise
which is worse? A return to a level skill based game would be nice not who shot first (flinch go away).
Fastest selling doesn't mean much if the game pretty much done within 4 months and almost a ghost town within the year.
Halo's profile has been significantly harmed by Reach and Halo 4. When decade long fans are selling or giving away their collections, when almost 50% or more of the communities start to disappear, there is trouble. I'm not saying we need the second coming of CE here (sorry boosh, big show, funk), I'm saying we need Halo games that are much better than we've gotten the last two releases, games that represent traditional and classic Halo than try to be something it's not.
So hopefully, equal starts, in game ranks, monks chanting in menus (it's important), no loadouts, no armor abilities, no perks, no instant respawn, no bloom, descope not flinch, on map weapons, equal focus on 2v2/4v4 game play as much as BTB with map sizes reflecting playlists equally, rebalancing of weapons to remove redundancy, increased movement and strafe speed, lower aim assist and bullet magnetism etc. Let's go back to what made Halo CE/2/3 more fun to play and engage than Reach or Halo 4.
If you need a CE pistol style weapon, a zero bloom DMR with a 2x scope would be a great all around utility weapon. Obviously this is all a pipe dream, but a man can hope.