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[Dazraell]

343 Dev: Hey Phil, we have a pitch for a new Halo game
Phil: Show it
<Dev shows the pitch>
Phil: That's not it, try again
343 Dev 10 minutes later: Hey Phil, what if....
Phil: Get ooout!

 

[Alx]

30 rejections over 12 years does not sound absurdly high. I’m not familiar with how it works in the gaming industry, but if it’s like other creative activities there should be a lot of ideas being thrown around and few to become a finished product.

 

[Sushi_Combo]

But they approved this through?

I've never recall seeing food in Halo.

Microsoft approves everything but games

I am most certain Aaron Greenberg pushed hard for this cookbook.

 

[Dr.brain64]

Halo is where it is because of phil...

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

they are always seeking perfection.

 

[nush]

would have worked well as part of the Halo universe

According to the person that thought these ideas up....

 

[SkylineRKR]

Infinite was great gameplay locked into a trash game. I played Halo 3 on the MCC after it and I would say keep it wide linear or whatever classic Halo was.

The moment to moment gameplay of H3 is still very good. Infinite's open world hurt its encounter design, and limited it to one biome. There was only 2 or 3 things to do on that map. I think if I beelined the story I would be done within 5 hours, because it seems there were a very small amount of story levels.

MP was good, but too bare bones for this era. Their competition was a weak Vanguard and a shitty 2042. And they still failed.

 

[NonPhixion]

I mean they had Bonnie Ross running the studio until last year. Perhaps now they have someone with a sense for quality games?

 

[GymWolf]

Don't hate on Nathan Hale.

Who?

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

"Sir. 343 is here with another idea for th...."

Exec:

 

[Darkmakaimura]

This just doesn’t sound all that fun. Maybe as a level where you’re storming a home world or a ship, but an open ended all out war version of halo sounds more like an RTS.

Personally part of the magic of Halo was uncovering the universe of Halo and the characters within it. The mystery of the forerunners, the flood, and the purpose Ark. Finding out the only way you could win against the flood was by killing everyone and starting over was awesome. But instead on focusing on the world of halo they’re focusing on the chief, forgetting that the chief was a vessel to bring the story to the player.

The next Halo should be a continuation of the current story, which isn’t bad. Atriox is a pretty formidable advisary and The Endless could be the start of something interesting. If by some chance the flood get released again, there could be a great story in there. But they need to stop focusing on human relationships and start focusing on the world that is Halo.

I hate that they made the Endless a bigger threat than the Flood, which are pretty much the Precursors that predate the universe and are god-like, even as the Flood when they become a Key Mind. It ruins the lore for me which was already good.

 

[FullMetalx117]

Halo 3 ODST was a fun campaign, would've liked more of that type.

Also, I thought MSFT was supposed to be "hands off." Idea rejection by "management" led to Halo 4, 5, and Infinite...what a disgrace.

 

[ResilientBanana]

I hate that they made the Endless a bigger threat than the Flood, which are pretty much the Precursors that predate the universe and are god-like, even as the Flood when they become a Key Mind. It ruins the lore for me which was already good.

The precursors might actually be a bigger threat than the flood, but an even bigger threat once consumed by the flood. Personally, I haven't seen any connections between The Precursors and The Endless. But, if Halo could go in the direction of forging together The Endless and The Banished into a new covenant-style threat while discovering precursor worlds and lore with the looming threat of the flood, we might be in for one hell of a new trilogy. Quite frankly, I would love to see the Master Chief go out with a bang if that were to happen.

The series could carry that nostalgic torch of discovering new world as well as threats.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

The precursors might actually be a bigger threat than the flood, but an even bigger threat once consumed by the flood. Personally, I haven't seen any connections between The Precursors and The Endless. But, if Halo could go in the direction of forging together The Endless and The Banished into a new covenant-style threat while discovering precursor worlds and lore with the looming threat of the flood, we might be in for one hell of a new trilogy. Quite frankly, I would love to see the Master Chief go out with a bang if that were to happen.

The Precursors are the Flood. The Flood is the "bad" or devolved Precursors. However, when the Flood form a Key Mind, they become reality warping beings much like they were when they were Precursors.

I never said that the Endless were Precursors. You might have misread me.

 

[ResilientBanana]

The Precursors are the Flood. The Flood is the "bad" or devolved Precursors. However, when the Flood form a Key Mind, they become reality warping beings much like they were when they were Precursors.

I never said that the Endless were Precursors. You might have misread me.

I think I might have.

 

[Badlucktroll]

I was ensaddened that nothing ever became of this. Halo Chronicles from Wingnut Interactive and Halo movie

 

[Yoboman]

Maybe they should have focused on making Halo Infinite good instead of pitching other games

 

[Spyxos]

Someone else should make Halo. 343 is unqualified for this.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Is there a good long form video on YouTube explaining the entire lore of halo? I stopped playing after 3 but like the universe.

 

[Dorfdad]

I didn't hate Halo Infinite, would still play it with a buddy co-op if they wanted, but it definitely didn't grab me like Halo 1-3 or Reach did. Hell, they really haven't done much to keep me interested in a very long time.

The series is too bloated across so many different multimedia platforms and it really kinda needs just a reboot. It became way to grandiose in a way that I just didn't find appealing. It's a problem that the stakes have to keep being raised over and over again and I just stopped caring.

Since Halo 1, I just wanted giant battlefields, with hundreds/thousands of grunts/elites having a war that my buddies and I could play together in interesting scenarios and Infinite almost got there, but it just wasn't enough and felt like it was pieced together with no coherent direction.

When it became Cod-ish with Halo 4/5, I really stopped caring. Halo 1 very much had that Half-Life DNA going through it and I loved it for that, but it got worse and worse after the 360 releases.

I dont think it ever will again. It was a new IP which mixed up the genre and had some great ideas for its time. The problem is they milked it to death, and didn't listen to the community on the direction IMHO. There is a shelf life for all these games they can't last forever without reinventing themselves.

 

[mylifedotcom]

If a project team pitched me 30 ideas that I hated I'd probably find a new project team.

 

[CoreyFlawless]

Halo / Gears games usually have every multiplayer mode known to mankind.

What you are talking about is already there.

True. But they don’t have something like helldivers 2 got going on. Hell idk why they hadn’t try making a halo like it and combo of destiny. Just a straight up pve coop mode.

 

[Ozzie666]

HALO: The TV Series, The Game. Is this one of them?

 

[MagnesD3]

If this was done after he Halo 4 days shame on Microsoft, if this is now I wouldnt trust 343 or microsoft to know better here.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

They should have rejected 31.

 

[IDKFA]

Give the franchise to id Software

Let them reskin Doom with Halo. I want to see Master Chief rip the mandibles off an Elite.

 

[rapid32.5]

so, id doesn't work on next Halo ? another proof Phil has no vision for managing teams.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

True. But they don’t have something like helldivers 2 got going on. Hell idk why they hadn’t try making a halo like it and combo of destiny. Just a straight up pve coop mode.

 

[DAHGAMING]

I liked Halo Infinite but when it finished it felt like that was the half way point. The multiplayer was barebones and only now feels like what it should have been at launch. I love Halo but these boys are tarnishing the series.

 

[salva]

I still think a Ghost Recon/SOCOM-style 3rd person 4 man squad tactical shooter playing as marines or ODST would be so good. Make it more realistic/gritty.
Or a Star Wars Battlefront style big multiplayer game. Standard class system marines, but you can unlock Master Chief, Arbiter etc like you can with Jedi.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

If it took 30 attempts to merely reach Halo: Infinite, it only goes to prove how utterly incompetent 343i is.

Take that fucking franchise away from those derpsters already!

 

[Chuck Berry]

Nope,they tried new enemies with 4 and 5 and they kinda suck.Halo Infinite's problems are not the enemies,hell the conversations the grunts have in Infinite are arguably the best the enemies have in the entire franchise,they are funny and full of character.Halo Infinite had potential and it's a pretty great campaign but fell short of being incredible like the original trilogy because of the fact that it went too small for it's own good.It reminded me of MGSV Phantom Pain,amazing sandbox to play in but the entire story feels like a prologue to a story that never comes.It just kinda ends before you feel it begins and you turn to disliking the game because it ended like a wet fart.

What's worse is that originally there were multiple biomes designed and ready to go back in 2020-21, but they realized that if they followed through with building them then they'd never ship the fucking game, so they chopped it down to the forest/mountain region.

Multiple types of environments wouldve done wonders for it I think. Marshy swamps, caves, snowy peaks, deserts, maybe a couple cities overrun with the enemy. What could've been.

 

[The artful mincer]

If Halo Infinite was the best of the bunch I can only imagine how bad the rest were.

Yeah but it's Microsoft.

Given there track this might have been the worse!

 

[Ogbert]

This industry has crawled up its own arse.

Here’s my pitch. You fucking shoot stuff. We’ll design some good weapons and levels.

 

[MayauMiao]

Schmitt mentioned that some of the ideas involved galaxy-spanning, while some were more intimate. There was also one that was really “dark”, he added.

Basically milking the Halo franchise. What's next, Halo visual novel drama ala Goodbye Volcano High where the kids of the UNSC members dealing with teenage angst?

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

Agree. For me, the open world felt like a bolted on concept rather than a full fledged design choice. They have you spend a ton of time in the open world but then in the back third of the game you're back in a linear "hallway" design where everything you did in the open world is meaningless. You don't get to bring any of the Marines you rescued, you don't get to access any of the HVT unique weapons you unlocked, you have no use for the vehicles you unlocked, and none of the dialog or interactions with the final boss is changed in any way based on what you did in the open world.

You'd think that disabling all the radio towers and killing all the HVTs would have caused some changes in the final part of the game but... nope. Just made the open world section feel like a monumental waste of time.

If Infinite was the best they could do with their flagship after years upon years of development and constant studio upheaveal, maybe it's for the best that none of these spin-offs saw the light of day.

God you're reminding me just how fucking terrible Infinite is. That last 1/4 of the game is the most lame, linear, repetitive, dribble-filler crap I've played in any game! Proof of how totally unfinished this disappointment was. Even the open world, the one interesting thing about the game, was so underitilzed and repetitive. So sad man that this is how Halo has been done by MS and 343. The open world had so much potential but has all of two different types of activities consisting of the same type of encounter ad nauseum. No setpieces to break up the action and give the game that Halo feel. No side quests, no characters or npcs to talk to and add to the story.

I can't believe this campaign was received as well as it was when it has essentially killed the franchise due to the reality of how weak it truly is. I cam only think reviewers were paid or that Halo fans have long since stopped caring. How can anyone be satisfied with this?

 

[Arsic]

All 30 weren’t baffle royale or extraction shooters,

Take the hint.

 

[FeralEcho]

What's worse is that originally there were multiple biomes designed and ready to go back in 2020-21, but they realized that if they followed through with building them then they'd never ship the fucking game, so they chopped it down to the forest/mountain region.

Multiple types of environments wouldve done wonders for it I think. Marshy swamps, caves, snowy peaks, deserts, maybe a couple cities overrun with the enemy. What could've been.

Yeah that would've helped alot,they were even in the first trailer for the game,at least the desert area.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

They should have rejected 31.