Halo Infinite plans to be a ten-year game, but can 343 Industries really keep fans invested in the game for an entire decade?
Video games -- particularly AAA video games -- have become too expensive to make. The intel from every fly on the wall in every investor's room is there is an increasing level of caution about spending hundreds of millions just to release a single video game. And you can't blame them. Many AAA game budgets mean that you can print hundreds of millions in revenue, and not even turn a profit. If you are an investor, quite frankly, there are many easier ways to make a buck. AAA games have always been expensive to make though, but when did we go from expensive, to too expensive? A decade ago, AAA games were still expensive to make, but fears of "sustainability" didn't keep every CEO up at night. Consumer expectations and demands no doubt play a role in this, but more and more games are also revealing obvious signs of resource mismanagement, evident by development teams and budgets spiraling out of control with sometimes nothing substantial to show for it.
It’s a question that I’ve pondered myself too. How are these developers spending this much money? Also, like the article stated, I cannot tell where it’s even going. Perfect example was used with Starfield and Spiderman 2.
They claim they have to increase prices due to development costs exploding. Okay? Well, I’m finding myself spending less and less money on games than before due to the quality actually going down. With a few recent exceptions games are getting worse.
I thought these newer consoles and game engines are easier-therefore-cheaper to make games than previous ones. What has happened? Was it over hiring after the pandemic, like other tech companies?
I believe that it is due to this unsustainable rise in production costs that more and more companies are looking to AI tools to help ‘lower’ costs.
I genuinely believe it's mismanagement. Why are we seeing an influx of one person or games with a team no bigger than 10 create whole games with little to no budget? Unreal Engine 5 and I'm sure many other engines have plugins that have streamlined to many things you would have had to create and code back in the day.
For instance, before the cull, there were 3000 Devs working on COD alone. I'm a COD player but let's be real, there's been no innovation since 2019s MW. What exactly are those Devs doing? Even more so when so much of the new games are using recycled content
I've stated this in many other articles, but corporate greed, mismanagement and bloat and failing to understand the target audience and misaligned sales expectations as a result are the big reasons for these failures.
You'll see it in the way devs and publishers speak, every sequel needs to be "three times the size" of its predecessor, with hundreds of employees and over-indulgence. Wasted resources on the illusion of scale and scope. Misguided notions that if your budget balloons to three times that of the previous game you'll make three times the sales.
Compare the natural progression of games like Assassin's Creed 1 to 2 or Batman Arkham Asylum to City or Witcher 2 to Witcher 3 or God of War remake to Ragnarok and countless others. How is it that From Software continues to release successful games? Why don't we hear these excuses from Larian? These were games made by developers with a vision, passion and desire to improve their game in meaningful ways.
Then look at Suicide Squad Kill the Franchise and how it bloats well beyond its expected completion date and alienates its audience and middle fingers its purchasing power by wrapping a single player game in GAAS. Look at Starfield compared to Skyrim. Why couldn't Starfield have 5-10 carefully developed worlds with well written stories and focus? Why did it need all this bloat and excess that adds nothing to the quality of the game? How can No Man's Sky succeed where Starfield fails? Look at Mass Effect Andromeda compared to Mass Effect 3. Years of development and millions in cost to produce that mediocre fodder.
The narrative they want you to believe is that game budgets of triple A games are unsustainable, but it's typical corporate rubbish where they create the problem and then charge you more and dilute the quality of their games in favour of monetisation to solve it.
Greed from everyone involved including game reviewers, which are the greedy little goblins that help the lords screw over the gaming landscape.
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Judging by the gameplay so far, I'm going to say no. This was also the plan for Destiny 1
If Halo Infinite wasn't a Xbox One game, but Xbox Series X and PC only game, the chances it could last ten years would be greater.
I personally hope Microsoft rethinks their strategy and comes out to say that their cancelling the Xbox One version.
Having Halo Infinite exclusive to the Xbox Series X would be a reason to upgrade to the next Xbox system, because unfortunately right now there isn't any Xbox Series X exclusives until 22.
The reason I say that is because all Microsoft showed was CGI trailers and as a gamer I want Xbox Series X to be successful, because it pushes PlayStation 5 to bring out better games too.
I really want Microsoft to stick around in the video game market, but unfortunately from what was shown, I can still play Halo Infinite on my Xbox One and Xbox Series X exclusives games won't be coming out soon.
So that is why I say cancel the game for Xbox One and make Halo Infinite an exclusive, then after that happens I'll have a reason to buy a Xbox Series X at launch.
I am gonna gamble and say Yes, but not 10.
Halo fans LOVE Halo. They keep coming back to it. And almost no hardcore fan disliked Halo 5 Multiplayer. Given most of this "Halo as a Platform" will involve small story tidbits and mostly multiplayer activity I think it can last 5 Years. (10 is just unrealistic and you know it)
That was IF the game had been a graphical knockout or atleast passable next gen. The tech and game design are already set in stones now, nothing going to change drastically in just 4 months. But I do not dare predict against Halo fans, they love this shit so much so yeah they will singlehandedly carry this franchise into a 3 - 6 Million Seller in year one.
Only full MMO's seem to last that long.
So long as they don't bring back those squeaky hit marker and shield regen sound effects from Halo 5 yes!