Did Microsoft Fool People With Halo Wars? - Step Ya Game Up Podcast Episode 38

Blade206, DCI and WorseCase come together to bring you the latest gaming news on the week of 4/19/09

* God Of War 3 Special Edition

* Microsoft Foolin People With Halo Wars

* M.A.G Vs Huxley

* A little thought of our E3 Predictions

* Nintendo being an entry console

* Eye Of Judgment Trophy Problem

* As always we have a Step Ya Game Up and much much more..

[Lfmesquite]

Very wise of them to not show any gameplay in the commercials, just cinematics of the Halo world, making it all seem very Halo like.

[- Ghost of Sparta -]

Most Americans don't care that they wasted their money. They just buy everything with the name Halo in it.

[Shepherd 214]

There was a demo on Xbox Live weeks before the game came out and was downloaded by millions.

The commercials only showed cinematics because every single halo commercial ever released has only ever shown cinematics. Halo 1, 2, and even 3 all did it, why not Halo Wars?

There is a back of the box you know, where it explains stuff when you pick the game up to buy it?

There were also many reviews on the internet stating its an RTS.

So, only the stupidest of the stupid could have been "tricked"

By the way, Halo Wars is a great game. Goodbye, troll.

[KingKionic]

i dont know why people disagreed with you.it broke download records on xbox live.so alot people new what to expect in the game.So fooling someone was out of the question.

also interesting podcast so far.

EDit

here : http://ve3d.ign.com/article...

[The BS Police]

Microsoft sure fooled everyone about Halo Wars even though it was announced as an RTS back at X06 in 2006, let alone the demo, magazine/internet previews, the back of the box, etc.

[Proxy]

Making those generic Halo FPS, "I love Halo, but what's this 'Half-Life' you speak of?", players try out a new genre is fine with me.

[Sitdown]

Yeah they sure did......especially since they did not include any pictures on the back of the box. Wait, they did put pictures on the back of the box........wait?!?! And it also says "from the makers of the famous Age of Empire series comes a new and exclusive Real-Time strategy game set in the Halo Universe". Yeah...I can see how Microsoft fooled them....by no stretch of the imagination should an individual research a product and actually become a smart consumer.

http://www.vgboxart.com/vie...

[DasBunker]

"So, only the stupidest of the stupid could have been "tricked""

well xbox users keep buying and buying the same console, after it brakes only god knows how many god damn times.. and they support it like its their savior... just saying.. it wouldnt surprise me.

[barom]

I wouldn't say that fooling people is out of the question. I think a small chunk of sales were people being "fooled". That said I think the majority were just really hardcore Halo fans.

[BLaZiN PRopHeT]

@1.7 maybe you should learn the difference between brakes and breaks before calling someone stupid?

[lowcarb]

Well they sure as heck fooled me. Here I was thinking it was going to suck and then it hit me this game was a masterpiece. What they need to do is advertise the game more because this was a slick way of showing us it's universe. I've played all the games this year thus far and will admit that this is my game of the year for now.

[lsujester]

Masterpiece? Uh, what? Not saying it was bad, but a masterpiece, it is not. If you really like strategy games, then please play the Civilization series (the real ones, not Revolution), Sins of the Solar Empire, Total War series, Starcraft, or even Age of Empires. I dare say any of those overshadow Halo Wars.

To me, parading Halo Wars as a masterpiece is sort of like shining your balls and showing them off as the tastiest oranges in the state.

EDIT: I know that simile makes no sense, but it's the first thing I thought of.

[lowcarb]

It's called an opinion, and one I stand by. I've played all of those games, and Halo Wars for console is the best I've played yet. Now you don't have to agree with me of course, but don't make yourself look so full of it criticizing people with a difference of opinion.

[Danja]

Halo Wars is actually a fun game , and I dont like RTS...

SO Hey M$ may have made alot of ppl RTS fans now..

either way the game sold well and ensemble studios should feel proud ... :)

[Viper7]

Dunno about the commercials but its hard to see Ensemble trying to fool any1. They have always made great RTS games so those who got their money wasted really should check on what they where buying.

[Shepherd 214]

Halo Wars is a masterpiece in the sense that it almost perfectly simplified the RTS genre in the same way that Halo simplified the FPS. And there is nothing wrong at all with simple, raw fun.

Halo Wars did what it set out to do:

Make an RTS game work great with a console controller, expanded the Halo universe greatly as promised, and it redifined console RTS's with its simplified yet fleshed out amazing gameplay.

[panasonic23]

No MS didn't fool no one damn it yall ps3 fanboy need to give up man people actual went out and brought Halo Wars RTS game you can tell it not a fps just by looking at the box for the love of god.

[gersh]

Got grammar?

[BLaZiN PRopHeT]

I guess the fact that the demo was downloaded over 2 million times before the games release doesn't count?

[mintaro]

Exactly 8 out of 10 people knew what this game was, an rts. Besides does no one look at the back of the box anymore?

[lsujester]

Backs of boxes are for pansies.

[Freakwave003]

There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, "Fool me once, shame on... shame on you? Fool me, you can't get fooled again."

[jBat17]

beacuse people who buy a crapbox are f0ols to begin with

[A LIVING LEGEND]

The first one was brilliant,a debatable masterpiece.
When is the horse dead?...........honestly,leave a good thing be.
Did Halo wars and it's marketing lead the flock astray?,sure,but the same obfuscation has been used by almost every company,EVER.
This is but a microcosum of the gaming industry,we know,we play,we move on.

[soul899er]

who knows, i dont have a 360 but that commercial fooled me because i saw only CG scenes in it so maybe people who dont have 360s and are fans were fooled @_@

[George Costanza]

Fooled into buying a game for a platform they don't own?

[soul899er]

no, no, im sorry >_< didnt completely explain, i wasnt fooled into buying a 360, i was fooled from the commercial because they didnt show gameplay so i thought it was a new Halo sequel, get it? i didnt know it was a RTS from the commercial thats all.

[George Costanza]

Oh no, HHG syndrome has spread! Seriously it seems like everyone is copying HHG's flamebait headline tactic just so they can get hits. N4G staff should really start cracking down on this, it's getting ridiculous!

[mboojigga]

Wow, over a million have downloaded the demo when it was released yet a month later the question is asked were people fooled. When is this sh*t going to end.

[Araceae]

I’m going to say no, because I can’t believe people are that dumb to fall for the commercial without looking the game up online, downloading the demo, or just looking at the back of the box before making a purchase. However, do I think that commercial was very deceptive? Absolutely. Game commercials should show in-game footage, or even in-game cut scenes at worse, but to just show CG cinematics (not in-game engine) is total BS.

[SonyRulz]

There's NEVER been an ad for a Metal Gear game that showed gameplay. Hell, most of the GAMES are cutscenes, granted...but it's still the same strategy.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

I agree with you're first comment,found it humorous actually.bubs.
HHG,as 'it' is called is not a subject for mockery here,as it were.You presume to mock,you will be destroyed by the HHG conspiracy team,they care not for humor.I however,do.nicely done,good work(Check the windows).If they attack en masse,call me,i can arrive by Wii.=)

[A LIVING LEGEND]

Prefer to continue beating the horse or perhaps,find a new one,less ridden.I am NOT dismissing Halos appeal,more it's ascension.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

wasted their money'.
According to?
Presented by.....
An opinion of 'average' american consumerism.Because you didn't like the game, therefore money wasted? you refer to wasted as a collective,a whole to which we all subscribe.
YOU may feel cheated,but let those who weren't label themselves.I do not like the game but it is a far stretch for me to imply that others wasted hard earned money on it.
Contributor?...........and contributing to what?,I might ask.You might ask the same if less compelled.

[Bladestar]

lol!... Microsoft only fooled Sony leg humpers since even after a ton of news all over the internet, preview on TV, magazines, game footage, downloadable demo, and gamestop sales rep telling them all about the game... they still can't tell Halo wars is an RTS and not a FPS...

Pathetic Sony leg humpers are upset that Kill Zone 2 got killed in terms of sells by a freaken RTS game! I mean.. that's probably the biggest insult in console history...

Sony leg humpers can't stand the fact that no one care or want Suck Zone 2... instead they rather buy an RTS game.

So, the only possible explanation that their little brain can compute is that everyone that purchase Halo Wars was as stupid and dumb as they are and did not know what Halo wars was....

lol!

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Just ignore it and hopefully it will go away. Just look at the topics discussed. Sony, Sony, Evil MS, Sony, Sony, Sony.

This is the one and only comment or click I'm giving to this crap. And of course nobody was tricked. The game has been talked about as an RTS for 2 years, the box has RTS all over it and they released a demo almost a month before release. There might have been a person or 2 who didn't bother reading and thought it was something else but that person wasn't tricked in any way.

[Covenant]

Someone cloned Hip Hop Gamer Show.

[moja]

I dunno, it's probably the same jackasses using 'cleverly' disguised pseudonyms.

[Strikepackage Bravo]

were fooled by this, that were fooled when Sony dropped BC from PS3 and kept selling it like nothing had changed, people were fooled by that too huh?

[123360]

the demo was down loaded by millions so they could see the game for what it was.it didn,t sell millions and as dropped out the top forty within weeks here in the uk and most of europe.this will happen in the us as well but to MS credit it was there for all to see.just hope it doesn,t hurt the ip there was a lot of complaints about it,you spend your money to take your chance.

[Halo3 MLG Pro]

Who buys a game without turning it around and reading the back cover? It cleary says and shows the gameplay. Fail of an article.

[Revvin]

You'd have to be pretty ill informed as these podcasters are to not understand Halo Wars was an RTS. Microsoft marketed it as an RTS, hyped it as an RTS for years and then we had countless media stories about the downfall of Ensemble the team behind the game. As a gamer you'd have to have been living under a rock to have not known it was an RTS. The reason its at no.9 in the XBOX Live online chart is because its an RTS. Look at the top few titles - all the most popular FPS genre.

I was actually surprised to see it in the top 10 at all because of the niche genere (at least on consoles) that it belongs to and the fact that it has broken into the top 10 should be celebrated. Its not one of the all time great RTS games, I find the tech tree's a little shallow compared to others but it draws on a rich storyline from the Halo universe and is a fun and involving game.

The podcast however is a dire, poorly edited, poorly produced abombination on the ears. Podcasts are the latest fad for gaming sites and only a small number manage to put together anything worth listening to. The sounds levels are all over the place, the mic gets knocked countless times and there are way too many long pauses and 'uhhhhh' as the presenter tries to remember what he's talking about.

[ThaGeNeCySt]

I don't see how... the demo was downloaded over a million times and only 600k in America bought it in it's opening month (not to say that's bad because it's not, especially for an RTS game) but nobody was fooled

[Rhezin]

as another itertation in halo, no over-the-top viewhead or RTS gameplay of any sorts, just 1st person cinematic. Damn I bet people were pissed once they figured it WASN'T n FPS. LOL I bet the whole xbox community fell for that one.

[air1]

the excuses you ppl come up with for sony when they get their as@ handed to them in sales.

bu bu but this and that and oh ppl didnt know it was a rts.

get over it halo wars sold well end of story...

@rhizen

yes all of the xbox community was fooled, millions dl'd the demo and still went to buy the game thinking it was a fps. bunch of clowns you fanatics are..

[Lord_Ranos]

of course they fool all the people who bought that Microsoft is GAY u know.