Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - “HALO INFINITE HAS LOST 98% OF ITS PEAK PLAYER COUNT”

Episode Date: July 17, 2023

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticIn this segment of Notorious Mass Effect, Analytic Dreamz discusses the recent news that Halo Infinite has lost 98% of its players on Steam. He explores the possible reasons for this steep drop in popularity, including the lack of content, the lack of progression, and the monetization of the game. He also discusses what Halo Infinite can do to regain its players.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Sad day in history, man. Sad day in history as Halo Infinite, the notorious Microsoft flagship IP is seemingly coming to an end. It seems like Halo just can't get anything right nowadays. as I feel like it peaked in popularity

in 2007 with Halo 3 of course and then it peaked again in 2010 with Halo Reach but ever since then there's been a sad decline

for Halo content and Halo players. As I come to you with disappointing and unfortunate news that Halo Infinite has lost 98%

of his player base. Poor now for Halo Infinite, man. Halo Infinite went from over 250,000 players online. to just 3,000. SMH man, SMH.

Now, I remember a time in my heyday when Halo was everything and for some people, the only thing that they played, especially around 2010

when Halo Reach came out because that was definitely my favorite game, favorite Halo game of all time. I know a lot of people enjoy the Halo 3 run with the whole trilogy, but

for me, I just felt like Halo Reach was the embodiment of what it meant to be what they call the, was it a Spartan? Yeah, the embodiment to be a Spartan. Just out there on the front lines, getting destroyed because, I mean, you're stronger than the humans and you're fighting aliens. But at the end of the day, there's more aliens than there are Spartans. So Halo Reach was a nice representation of what happens when that is the kid. case as you lost one after another, after another, after another.

Everybody just was dropping like flies. And then at the end of the game, I'm going to spoil if you haven't played. I mean, come on now. It's been like, like, come on now. But at the end of the game, you was the last soldier standing, and you just had to hold the line as a plethora of alien enemies was thrown at you. And then when you, at some point, lost your health bar, a cut scene played, and then that was the end of the game. Wasn't no beating the final boss.

Wasn't no happy ending. You lost, and you had to deal with it. Which is why Hillary is one of my favorite games of all time, which is another reason why, you know, on the side tangent, Avengers Infinity War is one of my favorite game movies of all time. because I just like to twist that not everything is a happy ending. Obviously, that's a morbid type take. Well, is it a morbid take? I don't know. A pessimistic type take, probably.

But I just feel like when you get into storytelling, it's always happy ending. So whenever that one story goes from happy ending to sad ending, I don't know, it feels more appreciated because it's like switching up the status quo, if that makes sense. Anyways, there's a lot of reasons why Halo Infinite lost his player base as 98% decreased to a player count probably hurts everybody involved with making this game. 343 Industries has announced upcoming content updates, but because of its declining player base, I would assume in the midst of every company in the world

having the most massive layoffs we've ever seen in life, 343 industries may not be the same team in the near future, in the near future. In the near future. And I just think it's basically

Halo Infinite was not a bad game. A lot of people actually enjoyed Halo Infinite. I mean, for the sales, it was not atrocious. I mean, 4.1 million compared to what they usually do is not atrocious. It's in sales. A lot of people was liking it.

They were saying, oh, Halo's back. But you know what ended it? It was, one, the lack of content because at launch, for some reason, Halo Infinite was just missing a bunch of features that fans expected. It was like a demo. It felt like a demo of a game.

It's kind of like when Street Friday Five came out, and everybody was like, where's this character or where's this mode or where's this like it just felt like it was just so much content missing that just made friends fans frustrated that like you actually service this game as a full 70 dollar like you service this game by adding a 70 dollar price tag nobody would have been mad if halo infinite was like um a live service for free you know uh like a fortnight but you had to pay for it. And the progression system

was way too grinding. I mean, I heard people who were sweating at the game. And it was like, oh, yeah, I only unlock like three or four, three or four things. I'm like, what? But you've been playing this since like two months? I was like, I was just baffled. I was like, ain't no way.

And then also, the micro-transactions was super heavy. Like, I don't know what three-for-three thought that the average consumer was going for it in the midst. of, or no, in the aftermath of the pandemic, but not everybody has Benjimans to be throwing at micro-transactions nowadays, which is why layoffs are even happening

everywhere at every company. So for the micro-transactions to be so, like, in your face and expensive, it's like, do you really care about the player base? I mean, for one, you released half of a game that didn't have all the features. Then, the progression system, system from what I've heard for it because I didn't play the game.

I was hearing this directly from people who played the game. They was like, yeah, man, I've been playing this for two months. And I've only unlocked this much when in the previous Halo games, I would have unlocked way more. And I'm like, well, that sounds problematic. And then the micro transactions to be the way it is asking, like, exorbitant amount of dollars for like a half big game. And then 343, three, three, three industries just goes into hiding. for no reason. Like, they'll just stop communicating with the community for no reason.

It's like, oh, we got future plans. And then they'll go away forever. And then we'll be like, oh, where's the future plans? And then nobody can get in contact with three-four-three about the game's development and future plans. I'm like, obviously, this game had potential. But unfortunately, three-four-three industries went back to the old ways of just not being the industry that's not being the development studio, I might add, to handle a Halo IP. So I think what needs to happen is what Marvel did when they took Spider-Man from

Activision and gave him to Insomniac. I think that needs to happen with the Halo IP. There needs to be a changing of the guard as far as the development studio for Halo. I'm sorry to say it, but you may have to get like, who? Hold up. I'm about the researches before I make this point. Okay. So I don't know how this works,

because this is a multi-platform game, and the studio will have to just develop from one platform. But the developers for Doom Eternal, ID software published by Bethes, the softworks, some way, somehow, Xbox has to make it work in giving the Halo iTunes, IP to ID software and letting them make the next game because this is ridiculous. Like there's no reason why Halo being as notorious as it is as being an Xbox Microsoft flagship gaming character.

It's almost like Mario for Nintendo, not on the sales route, of course, but as far as being a popular figure, Halo is up there with some of the other console flagship property, like exclusive. property. So I think Microsoft needs to take it to their hands and give it to an actual studio that's still putting out classics because if you didn't play Doom Eternal, that game was beyond fire. And everybody was like, um, this is what like, well, not, they're not saying like this is what Halo should be. But as far as the gun play, how the guns feel, the mechanics, like, obviously you could put it in the realm of Halo because you can't have some of the gore and violence that's in Doom. But having,

a veteran and established developing studio like ID software you have to give them the Halo IP I don't know how I don't know what the

inner workings are I don't know how the business works but you have to make it happen because Halo has been treated bad for too long and if I was a Master Chief fan I would be raging at the fact that you had a

good game at Halo Infinite that was half big meaning it didn't have nearly the amount of gaming mode uh game modes that it should have had and now in uh

a result of that you've lost 98% of your player base so anyways click my link sure in my bio let me know one of my social media's what do you think about 4344 uh i mess it up 343 industries just completely butchering hello infinite

and do you think that my proposed idea of Microsoft giving the Halo IP to ID software is a good move? Or if not, what would you suggest to bring the Halo brand back to life?