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Xbox Rejected Around 30 Ideas For New Halo Games Pitched By 343 Industries

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
halo-infinite.jpg

343 Industries had pitched as many as 30 different ideas for new Halo games to higher-ups at Xbox, but all of them were rejected.

Former 343 Industries Senior/Lead Designer Kevin Schmitt took to Twitter/X to reveal that Xbox had rejected as many as 30 different ideas for new Halo games pitched by the studio during the 12 year period that he had been working there.
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According to Schmitt, each of the 20 to 30 ideas that 343 Industries had pitched to Xbox would have worked well as part of the Halo universe. He stated that they included many single-player and multiplayer ideas that were based around United Nations Space Command Marines, known as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers or ODSTs. Schmitt mentioned that some of the ideas involved galaxy-spanning, while some were more intimate. There was also one that was really “dark”, he added.

Source
 
Krappadizzle

Krappadizzle

Member
I didn't hate Halo Infinite, would still play it with a buddy co-op if they wanted, but it definitely didn't grab me like Halo 1-3 or Reach did. Hell, they really haven't done much to keep me interested in a very long time.

The series is too bloated across so many different multimedia platforms and it really kinda needs just a reboot. It became way to grandiose in a way that I just didn't find appealing. It's a problem that the stakes have to keep being raised over and over again and I just stopped caring.

Since Halo 1, I just wanted giant battlefields, with hundreds/thousands of grunts/elites having a war that my buddies and I could play together in interesting scenarios and Infinite almost got there, but it just wasn't enough and felt like it was pieced together with no coherent direction.

When it became Cod-ish with Halo 4/5, I really stopped caring. Halo 1 very much had that Half-Life DNA going through it and I loved it for that, but it got worse and worse after the 360 releases.
 
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Little Chicken

Little Chicken

Banned
Krappadizzle said:
I didn't hate Halo Infinite, would still play it with a buddy co-op if they wanted, but it definitely didn't grab me like Halo 1-3 or Reach did. Hell, they really haven't done much to keep me interested in a very long time.

The series is too bloated across so many different multimedia platforms and it really kinda needs just a reboot. It became way to grandiose in a way that I just didn't find appealing. It's a problem that the stakes have to keep being raised over and over again and I just stopped caring.

Since Halo 1, I just wanted giant battlefields, with hundreds/thousands of grunts/elites having a war that my buddies and I could play together in interesting scenarios and Infinite almost got there, but it just wasn't enough and felt like it was pieced together with no coherent direction.

When it became Cod-ish with Halo 4/5, I really stopped caring. Halo 1 very much had that Half-Life DNA going through it and I loved it for that, but it got worse and worse after the 360 releases.
Click to expand...
The open world of Halo Infinite was a good proof of concept which they should build upon, but the story was pretty thin and it's about time they refresh a lot of things, still fighting the same enemies you did in 2001's Halo CE is tiresome.
 
Del_X

Del_X

Member
Let's just pretend they'd have been able to execute on these ideas (they couldn't).

Now that they're under new(?) management, I think their single player offerings might have more variety.
 
intbal

intbal

Member
I assume all of these ideas had to first be given the thumbs up by Bonnie Ross before submitting to Xbox upper management.
Makes sense that they all sucked.

Now that she's gone, Halo can get back on track.
 
IFireflyl

IFireflyl

Gold Member
Apparently I am in the minority here, but I actually really enjoyed the Halo Infinite campaign. I loved Halo CE through Halo Reach, but Halo 4 and Halo 5 were garbage. Halo Infinite, in my opinion, was the first Halo game that 343 released that held any value. It wasn't perfect, but it was an enjoyable Halo experience.
 
SportsFan581

SportsFan581

Member
Halo Infinite campaign seems to have hit the right notes with people that love the franchise and the multi-player gets a lot more love from the classic Halo players than it did at first. They served that base of players well. Obviously, the title under performed a bit if the goal was to reinvigorate the player base and become a competitor for the dominant multiplayer experiences of the moment. If the rumors are true about them shaking up the tech used, maybe that will improve things even further the next time around.
 
Saber

Saber

Member
Could be both ways. These ideas might being great for the fun aspect and player community but bad for the blacksuits. Or it could be that all those ideas were terribly bad and they end up using the less bad one.
 
ResilientBanana

ResilientBanana

Member
Krappadizzle said:
Since Halo 1, I just wanted giant battlefields, with hundreds/thousands of grunts/elites having a war that my buddies and I could play together in interesting scenarios and Infinite almost got there, but it just wasn't enough and felt like it was pieced together with no coherent direction.
Click to expand...
This just doesn’t sound all that fun. Maybe as a level where you’re storming a home world or a ship, but an open ended all out war version of halo sounds more like an RTS.

Personally part of the magic of Halo was uncovering the universe of Halo and the characters within it. The mystery of the forerunners, the flood, and the purpose Ark. Finding out the only way you could win against the flood was by killing everyone and starting over was awesome. But instead on focusing on the world of halo they’re focusing on the chief, forgetting that the chief was a vessel to bring the story to the player.

The next Halo should be a continuation of the current story, which isn’t bad. Atriox is a pretty formidable advisary and The Endless could be the start of something interesting. If by some chance the flood get released again, there could be a great story in there. But they need to stop focusing on human relationships and start focusing on the world that is Halo.
 
FeralEcho

FeralEcho

Member
Little Chicken said:
The open world of Halo Infinite was a good proof of concept which they should build upon, but the story was pretty thin and it's about time they refresh a lot of things, still fighting the same enemies you did in 2001's Halo CE is tiresome.
Click to expand...
Nope,they tried new enemies with 4 and 5 and they kinda suck.Halo Infinite's problems are not the enemies,hell the conversations the grunts have in Infinite are arguably the best the enemies have in the entire franchise,they are funny and full of character.Halo Infinite had potential and it's a pretty great campaign but fell short of being incredible like the original trilogy because of the fact that it went too small for it's own good.It reminded me of MGSV Phantom Pain,amazing sandbox to play in but the entire story feels like a prologue to a story that never comes.It just kinda ends before you feel it begins and you turn to disliking the game because it ended like a wet fart.
 
WitchHunter

WitchHunter

Banned
Draugoth said:
halo-infinite.jpg



According to Schmitt, each of the 20 to 30 ideas that 343 Industries had pitched to Xbox would have worked well as part of the Halo universe. He stated that they included many single-player and multiplayer ideas that were based around United Nations Space Command Marines, known as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers or ODSTs. Schmitt mentioned that some of the ideas involved galaxy-spanning, while some were more intimate. There was also one that was really “dark”, he added.

Source
Click to expand...
30 ideas? And all got rejected, by whom? Maybe that's why you should work for yourself as a creative.
 
Dural

Dural

Member
DaGwaphics said:
Halo Infinite campaign seems to have hit the right notes with people that love the franchise and the multi-player gets a lot more love from the classic Halo players than it did at first. They served that base of players well. Obviously, the title under performed a bit if the goal was to reinvigorate the player base and become a competitor for the dominant multiplayer experiences of the moment. If the rumors are true about them shaking up the tech used, maybe that will improve things even further the next time around.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I really enjoyed Infinite and one of my sons absolutely loves it, it's his favorite game. It'd be cool if they built off what they learned and make something even better.
 
tmlDan

tmlDan

Member
Ideas are great, but execution is the most important and that's something im not confident the team could have done regardless.

I do hate the idea of MS rejecting the ideas and forcing them to make the same game again, not sure why they'd do that
 
BbMajor7th

BbMajor7th

Member
A studio is full of creatives; a corporation is full of bean counters. I imagine that 343 had plenty of original ideas but the suits will have said 'our data says players love open worlds - make open-world Halo'.
 
Sybrix

Sybrix

Gold Member
How about make a Halo game that doesnt look as flat as a witches tit.

These forge creations are so amazing but they are let down so badly by the game engine. The game textures are flatter than an ironing board.

It takes so much of the Halo magic away when these games run on shite engines.
 
Iced Arcade

Iced Arcade

Member
Should go back to the horrorish space military game and pull back from the over the top mystical shit. And every game doesn't need to be fucking open world.
 
StueyDuck

StueyDuck

Member
Draugoth said:
halo-infinite.jpg



According to Schmitt, each of the 20 to 30 ideas that 343 Industries had pitched to Xbox would have worked well as part of the Halo universe. He stated that they included many single-player and multiplayer ideas that were based around United Nations Space Command Marines, known as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers or ODSTs. Schmitt mentioned that some of the ideas involved galaxy-spanning, while some were more intimate. There was also one that was really “dark”, he added.

Source
Click to expand...
Space man in green suit goes from different location to location, shoots some hairy gorilla aliens and malnourished predators to find out that again someone is building a ring weapon in space and then you blow it up. Allow for split screen co-op and take some of the maps and turn them into pvp maps.

Done.
 
Horseganador

Horseganador

Member
If the idea was to end the franchise...they have achieved it, it is incredible how with an outstanding playable base like Halo they have done it so badly.
 
CoreyFlawless

CoreyFlawless

Member
Man, they should easily and could had made a odst game like the helldivers 2. Where you have to fight the floods( being the bugs) then have the other fractions. Then have some mission where the Spartans come in and help push them back. I swear if one of them idea was that, and they push it down and now seeing helldrivers 2 doing good. I wonder if they feel sick about that then
 
YOU PC BRO?!

YOU PC BRO?!

Gold Member
Honestly, this explains everything. Its no secret how many studios have crumbled after being acquired by Microsoft. I shudder to think how many great ideas have been shot down by clueless talentless execs.
 
vaibhavpisal

vaibhavpisal

Member
CoreyFlawless said:
Man, they should easily and could had made a odst game like the helldivers 2. Where you have to fight the floods( being the bugs) then have the other fractions. Then have some mission where the Spartans come in and help push them back. I swear if one of them idea was that, and they push it down and now seeing helldrivers 2 doing good. I wonder if they feel sick about that then
Click to expand...
Halo / Gears games usually have every multiplayer mode known to mankind.

What you are talking about is already there.
 
Nydius

Nydius

Gold Member
Little Chicken said:
The open world of Halo Infinite was a good proof of concept which they should build upon, but the story was pretty thin
Click to expand...

Agree. For me, the open world felt like a bolted on concept rather than a full fledged design choice. They have you spend a ton of time in the open world but then in the back third of the game you're back in a linear "hallway" design where everything you did in the open world is meaningless. You don't get to bring any of the Marines you rescued, you don't get to access any of the HVT unique weapons you unlocked, you have no use for the vehicles you unlocked, and none of the dialog or interactions with the final boss is changed in any way based on what you did in the open world.

You'd think that disabling all the radio towers and killing all the HVTs would have caused some changes in the final part of the game but... nope. Just made the open world section feel like a monumental waste of time.

If Infinite was the best they could do with their flagship after years upon years of development and constant studio upheaveal, maybe it's for the best that none of these spin-offs saw the light of day.
 
Raonak

Raonak

Banned
The problem with MS is that they don't just want to make another halo game.

They want it to be everything. So the development becomes so unfocused.

Infinite was trying to be a soft reboot. but also an esport. but also a small scale game. but also a big openworld. But also a throwback for fans. But also meant to expand the audience.
 
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