Seems the rumor about the switch to Unreal Engine was true after all.
They had to change the engine. Slipspace was obviously a failure, at least from a technical sense. Though I cant imagine it allowed for some great content workflow either, given how Halo Infinite SP was basically all just one generic biome with like one generic tree model for the whole thing.
The level of visuals you got for the cost was just extraordinarily unbalanced, and there was seemingly no level of high end scaling that could salvage things.
Halo Infinite was already not up to demonstrating Halo Infinite as a 'flagship' XSX game when it came out, and true next gen titles will just date it far more with time. It'd be embarrassing to release something that'd likely only be a modest improvement on this in like 4-5 years nearer the end of the generation.
I also think a focus only on multiplayer is a huge mistake. It might be where the money is(especially in a Gamepass world), but it also means you have to rely solely on the existing hardcore Halo base. Single player campaigns were always the gateway for people to get into Halo multiplayer. It also just makes Halo far less interesting from a franchise perspective.
The level of visuals you got for the cost was just extraordinarily unbalanced, and there was seemingly no level of high end scaling that could salvage things.
Halo Infinite was already not up to demonstrating Halo Infinite as a 'flagship' XSX game when it came out, and true next gen titles will just date it far more with time. It'd be embarrassing to release something that'd likely only be a modest improvement on this in like 4-5 years nearer the end of the generation.
I also think a focus only on multiplayer is a huge mistake. It might be where the money is(especially in a Gamepass world), but it also means you have to rely solely on the existing hardcore Halo base. Single player campaigns were always the gateway for people to get into Halo multiplayer. It also just makes Halo far less interesting from a franchise perspective.
cheapchips
Veteran
I'm curious about the "it wouldn't feel like Halo without Slipspace" crowd within 343i. The hard work of emulating that in UE feels like it's dwarfed by all the production time saved everywhere else.
You mean about the Internal Evaluations IF they should switch engines. They had not switched engines as can be seen by the released product.
The other upcoming product is the long rumored Battle Royale Halo product developed by an external studio.
cheapchips
Veteran
This sounded to me like they went round that loop again and any future Halo, not just the Certain Affinity title, will use UE.
Jez from Window Central was sitting on the same info as Bloomberg and took that article as confirmation.
Report: Microsoft's 343i to switch Halo to Unreal Engine, focus on multiplayer
Moving forward, Xbox's flagship franchise is getting some serious reorganization.
www.windowscentral.com
Hopefully they manage to build on the customization pieces such as Theatre Mode and Forge to keep Halo unique from the cookie-cutter UE releases.
Looking forward to seeing what we get.
cheapchips
Veteran
One of the articles mention that they have been working on UE forge. Looking at Satisfactory or even Fortnite suggests that should work out fine?
cheapchips
Veteran
It's really hard to envisaging them using id tech. I'm sure they'll serve up something special rendering wise. I'd have thought UE would easily win out on the production side though + you have those Coalition devs there to push the visuals.
Frenetic Pony
Veteran
All the execs got fired, so... whatever. No great loss there "hey we should put all our resources into a multiplayer almost no one plays, rather than finishing the feature we'd promised to our fanbase that already paid" is an egregious enough mistake to get fired.
Combined with the story having run its course quite a while ago and the whole series Ubisofting, in that the sequels continue because the sales have even if no one knows what to do with it; and Steve Downs as Master Chief sounding audibly pretty old in Infinite... well a "reboot" seems a fine option.
Subtlesnake
Regular
Because the proportion of people that would likely use the feature is small. I think it makes more sense to focus on multiplayer as a whole for now.
Inuhanyou
Veteran
On the one hand, I feel bad for 343. Microsoft created them specifically for the purpose of making halo ad infinitum like coalition for gears. And were subject to the whims of an entire legacy and cultural backdrop of another company on top of that.
Coalition took the safe route and kept doing more gears again and again even though people were done after 3. The series faded into irrelevance due to stagnation but atleast it was consistent and still fun.
343 did the opposite tack and tried to appeal to the greater market, and failed hard by not appealing enough to the die hards while the casual fanbase had plenty of fps to play not called Halo.
Both strategies definitely made sense at the time when dealing with a no win situation l, but it all comes down to MS wanting to keep making the same IP long after their cultural relevance is used up. God of war died after ascension and would have continued to stay dead and a product of it's time without a huge reinvention, and there are some people who still have issues with the change despite being lauded.
I cant imagine what's left of the fanbase of the hall and gears content now after such much nonsense. I guess I'll find out when I get my series S some time this year. I skipped out on the entire Xbox one generation. And now I wanna see what that generation was really made of
Coalition took the safe route and kept doing more gears again and again even though people were done after 3. The series faded into irrelevance due to stagnation but atleast it was consistent and still fun.
343 did the opposite tack and tried to appeal to the greater market, and failed hard by not appealing enough to the die hards while the casual fanbase had plenty of fps to play not called Halo.
Both strategies definitely made sense at the time when dealing with a no win situation l, but it all comes down to MS wanting to keep making the same IP long after their cultural relevance is used up. God of war died after ascension and would have continued to stay dead and a product of it's time without a huge reinvention, and there are some people who still have issues with the change despite being lauded.
I cant imagine what's left of the fanbase of the hall and gears content now after such much nonsense. I guess I'll find out when I get my series S some time this year. I skipped out on the entire Xbox one generation. And now I wanna see what that generation was really made of
Halo has been mediocre for a long time. It was trending this way for quite a while. The engine itself is obviously not in a good state. Unfortunately it's very likely the right decision to ditch it. It sucks that it's another custom engine gone, but ultimately if it's not bringing anything new or interesting to the table, it's not a loss. People love to blame executives for product failures, but I guarantee there's a lot that could have been handled better bottom to top of the organization. Does mean they're bad developers. They just lost the handle on this engine/game and now it's due for a fresh start. Personally I'd scrap Halo forever, but hopefully they can turn it around. The game is pretty much just a nostalgia trip for middle-aged people at this point.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
The thing is, the numbers don't support that supposition. Gears is selling better under the Coalition than it did under Epic.
Perhaps people aren't talking about it as much and/or the vocal minority are panning it, but sales are higher for the series now than it was for the first 3 games.
That's because the Coalition stayed true to the IP and mostly gave fans what they wanted.
OTOH - 343i went on a tangent and attempted to change it into something that wasn't Halo and sales have trended down since they took over.
Regards,
SB
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The-Nastiest
Newcomer
Citation needed. I found this hard to believe so I did a search and I can't find anything to support this statement. Since this forms the base of your response, it needs to be accurate.
Speaking subjectively as a player/fan of the franchises. I am on the side that both Gears and Halo are long in the tooth and the developers of both are uninspired would be better served doing different IPs.
I don’t think that they should scrape halo and gears. To be honest gears 4 and 5 are my favorite in the series. I do agree however that studios should take a break from series and develop something else a smaller scale project and take a rest. We have seen example of such action in Hi Fi rush and if the rumors are true coalition is working right now on a smaller project.
When it comes to halo I think it is on downhill since 3. The true successor to halo for me is destiny 2. It just does everything better than halo.
I think this franchise need a reboot at this point.
When it comes to halo I think it is on downhill since 3. The true successor to halo for me is destiny 2. It just does everything better than halo.
I think this franchise need a reboot at this point.
@The-Nastiest I definitely enjoyed playing Gears 4 and Gears 5 (the sailing parts in gears 5 were weird and slowed it down), but I really don't feel a strong desire to see the end of the story or anything. A new game from Coalition would be way more interesting. They at least seem to be on the right track in terms of producing quality and technically polished games. 343 is a tough one. I hope they turn it around, but I don't have a lot of faith. Switching games would be better for them, but I'm not sure they'll solve all of the dysfunction just by switching engines. They're getting rid of the technical barrier, but not solving the mismanagement and lack of creativity.
I wouldn't call that taking a break. That's a smaller side team working on a project.
It never stopped them working on main titles.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Here's my post about it when someone else made that claim which made me curious about how Gears has done after it was taken over by The Coalition.
MS's monetisation model for GP *spawn
https://www.trueachievements.com/n52676/obsidian-xbox-game-pass-microsoft?fbclid=IwAR1_4XwESpKuMmkqQggB7P0XN0yUqafWWSgQut6Rf6Sd8OKFrfOb3vBvtIQ While the team has the flexibility and budget to continue making large worlds, Urquhart says that the metric for success has changed slightly due to...
forum.beyond3d.com
Regards,
SB
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