Time’s Up: Halo Will Never Be A Cross-Platform Mega-Franchise.

[Ghost Recon]

Time’s Up: Halo Will Never Be A Cross-Platform Mega-Franchise.

Source website: http://leviathyn.com/microsoft/xbox-360/2014/04/13/times-halo-will-never-cross-platform-mega-franchise/

 

Paragraph taken from: http://leviathyn.com : Halo is, and always will be the most important gaming franchise in Microsoft’s history. The popularity and quality of those original 3 games should never be questioned or understated. But now, in 2014, one has to look back at the franchise and wonder where it all went wrong and accept that it’ll never be as popular as it once was.

 

[My opinions and ideas:

1. Nice and Excellent Article to read.

2. I am happy that Halo will not go to other consoles.

3. I wonder if there will ever be a Halo movie.

4. How long did it take them to figure this out?

5. I wonder how much Halo is worth with Microsoft?

6. Who thought of Halo?

7. How did Halo become so popular throughout the years?

8. How many Halo books are there?

9. Is there Halo Comic books?

10. Will we ever see USB's of the Halo characters?

11. Will we ever see Keyboards, mouse pads, Halo laptops ever made?[/end]

[Hugo I]

Well Halo was at the Right Place at the Right Time. Not understating HOW GOOD Halo is. BUT I literally bought an Xbox to play Halo 2 with my friends when I was 11 years old, I saved up my own monies to buy an xbox when I was 11 for Halo 2 yes. that happened.

 

 

This Game is great but simply put its popularity grew out of demand for Online gaming via console. Nowadays the market is flooded with blockbuster titles you can play online.

 

in 2005 Xbox Live had just launched and so did Halo 2. nuff said. [shout] I LOVE HALO HAVE EVERY HALO RELATED GAME AND XBOX AND CONTROLLERS AND WISH MASTER CHIEF WAS A GIRL BUT CORTANA WILL DO [/shout] I love halo. But its grand success is do to timing.

[Caboose The Ace]

Well they say it will never go on other consoles but Steve jobs said Apple will never make a mini I pad.... Guess what ?

 

They made one.... So who is to say 343i will not make Halo on PC or PlayStation ?

 

 

Anyway Spartan Assault went to Steam so has this already started to happen ?

[MCPO Mayh3m]

Well they say it will never go on other consoles but Steve jobs said Apple will never make a mini I pad.... Guess what ?

 

They made one.... So who is to say 343i will not make Halo on PC or PlayStation ?

 

 

Anyway Spartan Assault went to Steam so has this already started to happen ?

'

Because Microsoft owns the title and all that is Halo. Thus preventing PC or Sony from ever playing the game.

 

It works a lot like the marvel movies: Why was Spider-Man not in the avengers? Sony owns the right to Spider-man and Disney/Marvel does not, thus preventing Disney/Marvel from ever using Spider-Man in an Avengers film. Same issues with the fantastic four as well.

 

It all has to do with licensing and agreements. Halo will not be on Playstation or PC period. Steve Jobs said there would never be an iPad mini, but there was no license constraining him from building one.

 

 

Now, from what I understand... Halo was originally going to be a game owned by Mac... that is until Microsoft realized how good it was going to be and  bought it.

[Caboose The Ace]

Yes May3m but they say it now but who knows what will happen a few years from now....

 

Spartan assault made it to Steam and sold well enough so why not Halo 3 and Halo Reach more cash for MS and more people play Halo ... Win , win.

[MCPO Mayh3m]

Yes May3m but they say it now but who knows what will happen a few years from now....

 

Spartan assault made it to Steam and sold well enough so why not Halo 3 and Halo Reach more cash for MS and more people play Halo ... Win , win.

 

A few years from now:

2014/2015: Halo 2 Anniversary on Xbox One and potentially Xbox 360.

2015/2014: Halo Xbox One a year later, and then...

2016/2017: Halo 6 the year or so after.

 

I don't see MS letting their baby go any time soon... on any of the console title games. The reasons Spartan assault was made available for Steam is pretty simple: it is not a standard Halo game, and it was made for tablets... which Sony, Microsoft, Samsung, Apple, etc make. Tablet games have to be available to multiple platforms.... because if they are limited then the sales hurt (unless you are apple). Microsoft is not dumb, Halo the FPS is staying on Xbox, while any RTS or other "Spartan Assault" style games, I can see being on Steam and tablets.

[Buns]

Yes May3m but they say it now but who knows what will happen a few years from now....

 

Spartan assault made it to Steam and sold well enough so why not Halo 3 and Halo Reach more cash for MS and more people play Halo ... Win , win.

Spartan Assault made it to steam but it can only be played on WINDOWS

 

There is no Halo game on PC that can be played in anything but WINDOWS

 

And Microsoft owns Windows so they're still putting it on their own property so no this hasn't already happened. 

[Twinreaper]

Keeping Halo locked to Xbox only and not allowing the franchise to branch out to PC and Steam more specifically is hurting Halo. Halo is a great game, but who "really" wants to buy a new $500 console just to play Halo? Series toppers like CoD, Crysis, Far Cry, Battlefield, Bioshock, Titanfall....they all are available on multiple platforms. Their success has not slowed, and their player counts have not dwindled. Console sales remain strong for them, and the sales for PC/Steam make up the difference in development cost.

 

We are at a critical juncture in gaming right now. This new bread of consoles is now using the 32-bit (x86) architecture that the development companies use when developing the game. Not only does this allow multiple consoles to be worked on at the same time with virtually no driver/hardware utilization differences, but it also allows a direct PC compiled version as well. The new architecture greatly reduces the development time and cost. For Microsoft and Halo to not take advantage of this is silly.

 

Sony is Microsofts greatest enemy. Sony tries to outdo them with hardware and game lineups. In the end Microsoft uses Halo as a crutch to whimper by. I say, take the fight to Sony's front door and give Sony players a taste of Halo. Give them a reason to want to play the games on Xbox, but still support multiplatform releases. Going full out and branching the series is the only thing that will continue to allow Halo to dominate once again.

 

Just to correct you real quick Bnus, Halo CE was made available for OSX and Windows. Linux uses can emulate both Windows and OSX to allow games to play via Wine.

 

And Mayh3m, Halo was to be an RTS third person Mac game yes, but Microsoft didnt just see it and buy Halo, they aquired Halo by buying Bungie and preventing their bankruptcy.

[Caboose The Ace]

Also we all know in a few years that MS will shut down 360 live soon enough not today , not tomorrow or the next day or the day after that day but some time after Halo 5 is launched they will shut down the 360 muilplayer but when they do why not port all the Halo 360 games to pc ?

 

 

Because those games by then will be obsolete few will buy those games anymore and few will play 360 most will be on PC , PS4 and XB1 but if MS port Halo 3 , Reach , Odst and Halo 4 to PC they could still make some money off old products.

[MCPO Mayh3m]

And Mayh3m, Halo was to be an RTS third person Mac game yes, but Microsoft didnt just see it and buy Halo, they aquired Halo by buying Bungie and preventing their bankruptcy.

 

Thanks for clarifying that, my memory on who what and when is a bit sketchy. That clears it up.

[Hugo I]

Master Chief is to Microsoft as Mario is to Nintendo, Nintendo doesn't need to branch Mario games out to other consoles, Microsoft doesn't need to branch Halo out to other consoles.

 

I enjoy games that are specific to one console, every game for every console is a rather socialistic concept in my opinion....

[Twinreaper]

Hugo, please dont try to involve political aspects of uniformity to the gaming genre. Not once was it stated that should be one system or platform, and all games should be on it.

 

What we are discussing here is the ramifications of a franchise that is dwindling, and what it could do to save itself. If youd like to engage in true socialist ideals and policy, then look no further than Mayh3m and myself. We are both blood German and my family had direct involvement in War WorldII. I could tell you truths about WWII that would make your head spin.

[OMG Treason]

You can never grow if you don't break out of the box. Halo has a way superior multiplayer compared to most games. With a solid learning curve. I play cod too yes I'm good at it but racking up kills in cod is easy. Halo is a challenging game and deserves to be cross platform. Microsoft just will never see it.

[XDrakeX93]

I understand this could be called necro-posting, but it's only 3 deep in the recent tab... 

     Does anyone not see the amount of money MICROSOFT .... yes MICROSOFT could make on a WINDOWS port to PC, Microsoft owns Windows. They could follow Valve, EA, and Ubisoft and create a proprietary platform and DRM program that launches runs and sells microsoft games like Halo with out much of a problem. They could also partner with Steam/Valve the biggest of the three above and market it even more without rebooting Games for Windows Live. This isn't that hard of a market venture they could keep it Microsoft specific without a hassle and sell so many more copies because of the amount of "Console 12 year old" of last generation have grown up and bought/built PC's (like me). There are a lot of people who are now PC gamers who played Halo growing up who, I'm certain, would go out and buy, say The Master Chief collection in a heartbeat we're they to branch out to PC. They could even make it always online, I mean most other PC games are going that way. They would sell millions and probably maintain >50% of the profit because it's a Windows game.

[Ranger Intel]

I completely agree on Halo being Microsoft's most successful franchise. Halo 3 especially had a lot of attention. The live-action trailers were amazing. Halo revolutionised gaming.

 

It is likely for more Halo games to come to PC. If I recall correctly, Halo 3 was considered to be ported to PC. Not like we'll ever see any of the games on Playstation.

[WonderWombat]

It doesn't need to be on multiple platforms the way it is going. Seems like they are equally focused at expanding the franchise into other forms of media. If Nightfall and the TV show are really successful it could possibly turn into a Star Wars level of popularity, but only if the non-video game things are popular as that would open up more routes for more shows/movies etc.

 

There is no other franchise that started from a video game that is as far reaching into other media as Halo and I am sure Microsoft/343 knows this very well. They just have to be careful to not drive away their established fan base.

Edited September 29, 2014 by WonderWombat

[Twinreaper]

Yeah cause Microsoft did such a great job handling the "media" aspect of the company.  The Nightfall project won't last past the season they finished or nearly finished.  Microsoft already shut down their extended media division in case you haven't forgotten.  They had that division running for nearly 10 years and never got anything past that ****ty FUD thing.  Microsoft and it's partners have no idea what they are doing with halo or to even manage it correctly.  Just the fact that they had to go back and rehash all 4 Halo's on a new console, just speaks to how much mismanagement and customer loyalty Microsoft is losing.

[Buns]

The Nightfall project won't last past the season they finished or nearly finished. 

Halo nightfall is only planned to be a Halo Cinema short like FuD. They never had any plans to go past what has already been filmed. 

[WonderWombat]

Yeah cause Microsoft did such a great job handling the "media" aspect of the company.  The Nightfall project won't last past the season they finished or nearly finished.  Microsoft already shut down their extended media division in case you haven't forgotten.  They had that division running for nearly 10 years and never got anything past that ****ty FUD thing.  Microsoft and it's partners have no idea what they are doing with halo or to even manage it correctly.  Just the fact that they had to go back and rehash all 4 Halo's on a new console, just speaks to how much mismanagement and customer loyalty Microsoft is losing.

Nightfall isn't seasonal, nor did they plan it to be seasonal. The media division was also for some Xbox TV thing, nothing to do with Halo. 343 even went to two totally unrelated companies to MS to have NIghtfall and their TV show made, they were really relying on the media division to be a success. Given the closure of the division likely means that Showtime will be the one to air the show also. And for all we know the MC Collection is just to see what multiplayer 2014 people like the best and is working just as planned.

Edited October 3, 2014 by WonderWombat

[Axilus Prime]

I don't think anyone ever thought Halo would become a cross platform franchise. It's a mega franchise as it is already, and one that MS can use to sell more consoles. I myself have pretty much gotten sucked in by this tactic already...or I will be, once I can afford a One. The game's good enough that this tactic gets people buying XB1s whether they originally wanted to or not.

[Twinreaper]

Whether or not they can still sell consoles or get some cinematic shorts is not the issue. The underlying issue is how poorly Microsoft has internally and externally mismanaged the brand for the past 5-7 years. Halo still isnt selling nearly enough hardware and merch to put them above other comparable titles or even whole companies such as Sony and Activision.

 

Microsoft has passed up and overlooked a lot of opportunities with the Halo IP in general. Hell it took outside 3rd parties to really expand and grow the novelization of Halo. Fact is, it seems to be a reoccuring theme, that Microsoft has to rely on outside 3rd party support more now to grow it and initialize new concepts and directions. As an IP holder, Microsoft itself should be the brainstorms behind new content, visualizations and ideas, not people whom have no affiliation or employment with Microsoft.

 

Seriously, what was Microsofts big brainstorm idea to inject new blood into the franchise? MMC?!? Rehash old titles? That is the best they could do? They can't even contractually develop their own multiplayer maps! It has nothing to do with time, and everything to do with focus, management and pure out laziness!

[Silent Orbis]

It's not cross-platform... sure. But hell, it's mega-franchise! xD Xbox One has some interesting cloud technology in the works that a Microsoft employee told me about.... and if not implemented in Halo 5: Guardians, it will definitely be implemented eventually in Halo games -- I'm sure-- through the special technology that the Xbox One will use in the future that Sony will never have.

[Caboose The Ace]

^

 

1 According to a Sony rep, they are working on cloud technology but not as heavily as Ms. )

2 Ms cloud technology according to an Ms rep will not be ready for at five or six years ( before beta testing can begin )

 

So it will be quite some time until cloud gaming comes out but when it does it will blow your mind.

[Twinreaper]

Your forgetting one important aspect of cloud computing and storage, it w8l never be unlimited. Cloud anything, relies on computers and servers worldwide to participate in and donate hdd space as well as virtual environments to be truly successful. Which is why we are limited in the amount of cloud space we have for saves atm.

 

Would you be willing to donate 1 or 2 physical or virtual cores of your pc 24/7 along with 250g or more of disk space? Me....hell no. If we're all gonna go the cloud route, it needs to be contained soley within Microsoft's farms or other 3rd part farms, not the general publics.

[Caboose The Ace]

^
 
But Cloud gaming could be the leap in gaming we have been waiting for, for a long time, no?
 
Just look at this seems cool eh? http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDQQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQxHdUDhOMyw&ei=AM8-VNa9KZPB7AbNn4GoCw&usg=AFQjCNEzRzpUUCU8Gq5Bw7Bn7XMakPEhHA&sig2=WRg38SuTY5eiDqUlKKwIeQ&bvm=bv.77412846,d.ZGU