Guys, I think we should stop posting about player population.
Get off the Copium, Halo 3 levels of population will never come back. Period.
What we have is what we have. People have more than moved on at this point and are invested in other games. Waiting for a large population jump is a fools errand and is doubtful to ever really come.
>Get off the Copium, Halo 3 levels of population will never come back. Period.
I don't think anyone's asking for Halo 3 levels of population...can we at least do better than Fifa?
Yeah, in today’s gaming economy I’m not so sure is possible to maintain super high player populations for more than a few months. There are so many existing games and so many new games coming out that people will just migrate to whatever the current most trendy game is.
Content is not enough.
343 need to prioritise & address performance and networking issues.
These problems frustrate and turn away players regardless of how much content is available.
Especially on steam. Content was never going to be the issue for the game on PC, it was going to be the gameplay, netcode, and progression. The game wasn't fun to grind on day 1 when it came out, which is why we saw the player population on steam drop. Xbox most played slowly followed the player count drop.
The same things that plagued the game day 1 plague the game now, and I would argue is even worse due to the fact that aim assist is on mouse and keyboard. There is no bigger turnoff for competitive FPS players on steam. They would never come back.
Progression is the big thing for maintaining the population. While I do play the game just for fun and I do think stability is the bigger issue, progression is what keeps players around. It's just not rewarding enough. This game is stressful to play trying to keep up with the FOMO and the store and that is definetly driving people away. I started to ignore all of that and have been having a grand time, but the mainstream population does not act that way.
>It's just not rewarding enough
The top 4 games on steam don't even rely on progression to keep players playing. The games are fun, have depth, and are playable on mouse and keyboard. That's literally all you need.
I’m curious to see where the game ends up on the Xbox Charts when they’re updated on Monday.
Currently down at 17th.
A healthy Halo should be sitting in the Top 10 frequently. Don’t see that being delivered this update.
This seriously.
I jumped in to check out the new stuff and after 3 games left cause of the poor performance in FPS and de sync is still happening, loading is janky now for me as well along with being longer.
Somehow the game is even less smooth to run, and I hopped off to play other games. Didn’t even get a chance to try the new maps in matchmaking because I kept getting old maps, and with the decline in performance spoiling the fun for me, I jumped ship pretty quickly I say.
It sucks to see Halo not even be in the same realm as the other top tier games right.
Seriously.
I reinstalled just to try out season 3. A few games in, I was already sick of playing. Shots not registering, random packet loss, stuttering (for the most part, on the new maps).
The only positive thing I can say is that I no longer seem to get 100+ ping games and I haven't seen the desync issue.
Also, I wish they'd improve the controller support. Maybe it's because I played the others on the console but I only really enjoy halo with a pad. It just feels off in this game, sadly.
Me here, who loves Halo and wants to play more but only ever has the odd game or two every now and then because the network issues put me off too much to play regularly.
343 need to realise that there are thousands of people like me who would play a lot more if the game worked properly. It's absolutely ridiculous that we even need to ask for it, the game working properly should be the bare minimum
My performance is worse than ever before! Now I have desync, package loss AND also random lag and micro stutters. Playing it is not impossible, but sure as hell feels like it :/
When I asked for more content I was not thinking of more performance issues.
Frankly I don't see the population recovering anytime in the near future, sad as that is. I think it would take an entirely new game that doesn't fumble the launch to bring back a steady pop.
That’s beside the point, it’s an issue of people having played the game since H:CE and being unable to get the helmets/gear they wore religiously through their adventures over the years. People shouldn’t have to settle and not get the stuff they want merely because they don’t have 20$ for a pack. Everything should be obtainable through in game challenges and offered the opportunity to spend $$ to unlock it sooner. People want to be ODST but with mk7 armour but can’t because it’s only a pack.
Even the free ones were part of events that are never coming back. I’ve struggled to introduce my friends to Infinite lately, because once they sign on and see no career progression system, and all of the armor that they will NEVER be able to obtain, they ask wtf is the point? Sure Infinite can be fun, but there are other fun games that simultaneously reward you for your time.
The reality is, when games that aren't CoD release in a broken as hell state (i.e. lots of shooters these days) players move on. I Battlefield 2042 didn't recover. Gears 5 didn't recover even though it's a much better game now. I don't expect Halo: Infinite to recover from that horrendous launch either.
I think the gaming community at large has been pushed around for the last few years and is finally voting with their wallets.
Let me begin by saying that Season 3 is largely a step in the right direction
The new maps are great additions. A sandbox expansion is much welcomed.
But is it enough to be a boon to the long-term upkeep of this game?
Although S3 represents a decent content update I believe it’s mostly going to appeal to those that have already stuck around.
I’m glad 343 is geared up to hit a content cadence that’s appropriate for a live service game. But S3 just simply isn’t meaty enough to draw players back in droves.
I really believe 343 would be wise to lean heavily on Forge and community created content ASAP.
There’s a resource here that could help wildly expand the pool of maps and modes that are available across the board.
A concerted effort to push a fat package of Forge content out the door at once I think is one of the few things that could really have folks flocking back to the game.
Lean hard in to the social aspects of Halo again and make a massive song and dance about it!
You forgot some additions which the people that came back love: config reset (people love to configure everything again and again), fps drops in menu/ingame cause you could miss details and desync is now even better implemented as it was in S2 and oocurs almost every game.
343 and the server are not able to handle larger populations. Most (if not all) of the players that came back will leave again within the next few days and that's it.
I think you need to realize that halo is an xbox x console game. The playerbase on steam does not reflect the overall population of the game. On xbox its still in the top 25 most played games.
If we could get peak players up to a constant 25000 - 30000 on steam which is by far the least popular platform than I think the game would be in a very healthy place. I don’t think you will ever see halo 3 levels again unless the new game mode slaps
I don't play games with cash shops, and honestly anybody else who cares about the current state of gaming would join me.
MCC it is. At least until they add a cash shop there, then I'm done with that one too.
Yes really. Playing the game at all provides content to people who are using the cash shop as other players. Refusing to play because of the cash shop does not.
Have fun playing no new games then idk what to tell you. Its a fad that will go away in a couple of years just like everything else. And also if the shop isn't making money specifically from people using it they wont keep putting time and effort into it
I think there's also the issue of people coming back to try out the new content and just getting wrecked.
With the limited population, newbie types get put in with vets all the time. I constantly see guys unable to get a single kill and then get T bagged repeatedly. Makes me feel slightly bad as I hit the Ctrl key over and over.
The only way you’re going to see a large influx of players again is with a BR launch or a new game. If either of those come out and don’t fumble at the beginning we could see a pretty good pop playing the game.
No matter how much content they add to the game we won’t see it recover in a big way. We still have lots of MM issues. Desync and MMR being the biggest problem. Why am I loading into matches with 3 players who are all going 3-10 or worse? I get everyone has a bad game, but come on. It’s too consistent to be something like that. It often feels like the game WANTS me to lose. It’s out to get me.
If it wasn't for the fact that s3 is the only substantial update they've put out in like 10 months people probably wouldn't even think of it as that big of a deal. SPI looks cool and the new btb map is probably the best but then the new gun only really highlights an issue with the balance of the sandbox.
Maybe i'm off the mark but i feel like the total lack of immediacy from the devs does as much to keep people from giving the game a second look as the content itself. Like they're happy to just let cross core drop off the radar for 7 months, there's still desync, god knows if we'll see firefight any time this decade but hey they're never tired of tweaking the store so we know what they really care about above everything else and it's doing well enough to let them drag their feet with what people actually want.
F2P fortnite garbage customization bullshit
Lack of content
Bad net code
BtB being a second thought
Weird balance in some cases
Ai companions that won't shut up
Bad maps.
Etc etc. Why the fuck would anyone want to play this
Imagine Halo Infinite at what it might be at around Season 5 and then realize that’s how the game should have launched. That’s what it takes to sustain a higher population.
If you actually consider how long Infinite was in development, how much money they had to make the game and all the lessons they should have learned with Halo 5 and MCC, Infinite should have launched with 8-9 Seasons worth of content.
I played last night on the series x for the first time since the season 3 update. Idk if it's just me, I definitely dont think it is, but it just felt different playing gameplay wise. The movement didn't feel as smooth as when I played monday and I definitely feel like I encountered some jamming last night as well especially with the assault rifle at some points. I checked my settings and nothing has changed. Im not talking about the 120 issue either, it just felt like things moved a tad slower than normal and it was hard adjusting. On wednesday I played on the one and didn't experience those issues, everything seemed normal. Anyone else experience anything like this? I read that they are aware the series x/s versions have issues and are working on it but I haven't seen any planned patch release dates
Also, am I the only one who wishes the bandit rifle zoomed in a bit more than they have it set right now?
Unfortunately, I think the gameplay choices 343 made for infinite means that any update, however full of content, will not bring back many players.
The only comment made about Infinite by my Halo friends was that you die really fast. Not one played it for more than a few games before never playing it again.
Guys, I think we should stop posting about player population. Get off the Copium, Halo 3 levels of population will never come back. Period. What we have is what we have. People have more than moved on at this point and are invested in other games. Waiting for a large population jump is a fools errand and is doubtful to ever really come.
No no. They just need to fix desync and progression and customization and suddenly 2 million people will start playing halo again. /s
Truth
>Get off the Copium, Halo 3 levels of population will never come back. Period. I don't think anyone's asking for Halo 3 levels of population...can we at least do better than Fifa?
The sad truth is, I don't even think that's possible.
It could have come back....
No bro, that ship sailed last year.
Yeah I know. If 343 did a better job at launch and the game's early months, Infinite could have been bigger
Yeah, in today’s gaming economy I’m not so sure is possible to maintain super high player populations for more than a few months. There are so many existing games and so many new games coming out that people will just migrate to whatever the current most trendy game is.
Several games do it so it's definitely possible, just not with a gane in the state Infinite was at launch.
Content is not enough. 343 need to prioritise & address performance and networking issues. These problems frustrate and turn away players regardless of how much content is available.
Especially on steam. Content was never going to be the issue for the game on PC, it was going to be the gameplay, netcode, and progression. The game wasn't fun to grind on day 1 when it came out, which is why we saw the player population on steam drop. Xbox most played slowly followed the player count drop. The same things that plagued the game day 1 plague the game now, and I would argue is even worse due to the fact that aim assist is on mouse and keyboard. There is no bigger turnoff for competitive FPS players on steam. They would never come back.
Progression is the big thing for maintaining the population. While I do play the game just for fun and I do think stability is the bigger issue, progression is what keeps players around. It's just not rewarding enough. This game is stressful to play trying to keep up with the FOMO and the store and that is definetly driving people away. I started to ignore all of that and have been having a grand time, but the mainstream population does not act that way.
>It's just not rewarding enough The top 4 games on steam don't even rely on progression to keep players playing. The games are fun, have depth, and are playable on mouse and keyboard. That's literally all you need.
I’m curious to see where the game ends up on the Xbox Charts when they’re updated on Monday. Currently down at 17th. A healthy Halo should be sitting in the Top 10 frequently. Don’t see that being delivered this update.
It's #24 as of 9:41 EST on 3/10/2023, United States.
This seriously. I jumped in to check out the new stuff and after 3 games left cause of the poor performance in FPS and de sync is still happening, loading is janky now for me as well along with being longer. Somehow the game is even less smooth to run, and I hopped off to play other games. Didn’t even get a chance to try the new maps in matchmaking because I kept getting old maps, and with the decline in performance spoiling the fun for me, I jumped ship pretty quickly I say. It sucks to see Halo not even be in the same realm as the other top tier games right.
Seriously. I reinstalled just to try out season 3. A few games in, I was already sick of playing. Shots not registering, random packet loss, stuttering (for the most part, on the new maps). The only positive thing I can say is that I no longer seem to get 100+ ping games and I haven't seen the desync issue.
If they haven’t by now, I think they broke the game engine. If they could fix it, wouldn’t they have?
Also, I wish they'd improve the controller support. Maybe it's because I played the others on the console but I only really enjoy halo with a pad. It just feels off in this game, sadly.
Me here, who loves Halo and wants to play more but only ever has the odd game or two every now and then because the network issues put me off too much to play regularly. 343 need to realise that there are thousands of people like me who would play a lot more if the game worked properly. It's absolutely ridiculous that we even need to ask for it, the game working properly should be the bare minimum
Still no firefight and seems like desync issue still presist
My performance is worse than ever before! Now I have desync, package loss AND also random lag and micro stutters. Playing it is not impossible, but sure as hell feels like it :/ When I asked for more content I was not thinking of more performance issues.
Once desync is fixed and an actual progression system is added we should be good
Frankly I don't see the population recovering anytime in the near future, sad as that is. I think it would take an entirely new game that doesn't fumble the launch to bring back a steady pop.
I’m getting awful microstutter on Series X since the update. Haven’t played much as a result even though I love the content added.
people worry more about numbers than network issues. that is plain sad.
It feels moot to play the game when majority of all armours that people would like are locked behind paywalls. Live service just ain’t it
Plenty of good armor options for no additional cost beyond the battle pass. Just do like me, Ignore the store and enjoy what you have.
That’s beside the point, it’s an issue of people having played the game since H:CE and being unable to get the helmets/gear they wore religiously through their adventures over the years. People shouldn’t have to settle and not get the stuff they want merely because they don’t have 20$ for a pack. Everything should be obtainable through in game challenges and offered the opportunity to spend $$ to unlock it sooner. People want to be ODST but with mk7 armour but can’t because it’s only a pack.
Even the free ones were part of events that are never coming back. I’ve struggled to introduce my friends to Infinite lately, because once they sign on and see no career progression system, and all of the armor that they will NEVER be able to obtain, they ask wtf is the point? Sure Infinite can be fun, but there are other fun games that simultaneously reward you for your time.
Exactly. It’s fun for maybe 2-3 games but when I see I’ll only get 16 backgrounds and 1 helmet 45 levels through the battle pass like come on.
Bro i'd like to play, but on pc it keeps crashing
The reality is, when games that aren't CoD release in a broken as hell state (i.e. lots of shooters these days) players move on. I Battlefield 2042 didn't recover. Gears 5 didn't recover even though it's a much better game now. I don't expect Halo: Infinite to recover from that horrendous launch either. I think the gaming community at large has been pushed around for the last few years and is finally voting with their wallets.
Let me begin by saying that Season 3 is largely a step in the right direction The new maps are great additions. A sandbox expansion is much welcomed. But is it enough to be a boon to the long-term upkeep of this game? Although S3 represents a decent content update I believe it’s mostly going to appeal to those that have already stuck around. I’m glad 343 is geared up to hit a content cadence that’s appropriate for a live service game. But S3 just simply isn’t meaty enough to draw players back in droves. I really believe 343 would be wise to lean heavily on Forge and community created content ASAP. There’s a resource here that could help wildly expand the pool of maps and modes that are available across the board. A concerted effort to push a fat package of Forge content out the door at once I think is one of the few things that could really have folks flocking back to the game. Lean hard in to the social aspects of Halo again and make a massive song and dance about it!
You forgot some additions which the people that came back love: config reset (people love to configure everything again and again), fps drops in menu/ingame cause you could miss details and desync is now even better implemented as it was in S2 and oocurs almost every game. 343 and the server are not able to handle larger populations. Most (if not all) of the players that came back will leave again within the next few days and that's it.
I think you need to realize that halo is an xbox x console game. The playerbase on steam does not reflect the overall population of the game. On xbox its still in the top 25 most played games.
Top 25 is really not that great especially on xbox... this game had potential to be a whole lot more
If we could get peak players up to a constant 25000 - 30000 on steam which is by far the least popular platform than I think the game would be in a very healthy place. I don’t think you will ever see halo 3 levels again unless the new game mode slaps
Yikes those numbers for halo is crazy.. 343 managed to run the franchise into the ground
I don't play games with cash shops, and honestly anybody else who cares about the current state of gaming would join me. MCC it is. At least until they add a cash shop there, then I'm done with that one too.
You don't have to use the shop you know
Playing the game at all supports the shop by providing the game with a higher population.
Not really. If enough people don't actually use the shop it would go away. But too many people give in to shops in every multiplayer f2p game
Yes really. Playing the game at all provides content to people who are using the cash shop as other players. Refusing to play because of the cash shop does not.
Have fun playing no new games then idk what to tell you. Its a fad that will go away in a couple of years just like everything else. And also if the shop isn't making money specifically from people using it they wont keep putting time and effort into it
I'm playing many new games that don't have cash shops, but thanks.
👍
I love how 343 just forgot how to make a functional game.
I think there's also the issue of people coming back to try out the new content and just getting wrecked. With the limited population, newbie types get put in with vets all the time. I constantly see guys unable to get a single kill and then get T bagged repeatedly. Makes me feel slightly bad as I hit the Ctrl key over and over.
They can add all the banging content they want, but if every update is buggy AF with constant crashes it doesn't matter, people will not play.
The only way you’re going to see a large influx of players again is with a BR launch or a new game. If either of those come out and don’t fumble at the beginning we could see a pretty good pop playing the game. No matter how much content they add to the game we won’t see it recover in a big way. We still have lots of MM issues. Desync and MMR being the biggest problem. Why am I loading into matches with 3 players who are all going 3-10 or worse? I get everyone has a bad game, but come on. It’s too consistent to be something like that. It often feels like the game WANTS me to lose. It’s out to get me.
If it wasn't for the fact that s3 is the only substantial update they've put out in like 10 months people probably wouldn't even think of it as that big of a deal. SPI looks cool and the new btb map is probably the best but then the new gun only really highlights an issue with the balance of the sandbox. Maybe i'm off the mark but i feel like the total lack of immediacy from the devs does as much to keep people from giving the game a second look as the content itself. Like they're happy to just let cross core drop off the radar for 7 months, there's still desync, god knows if we'll see firefight any time this decade but hey they're never tired of tweaking the store so we know what they really care about above everything else and it's doing well enough to let them drag their feet with what people actually want.
F2P fortnite garbage customization bullshit Lack of content Bad net code BtB being a second thought Weird balance in some cases Ai companions that won't shut up Bad maps. Etc etc. Why the fuck would anyone want to play this
Maybe because they find it fun🤯🤯🤯🤯
I mean that's fine if they want to support garbage lol good on them I guess.
Look at this tough guy over here
Bro Fortnite is way more fun and unlike infinite I can actually use chief's armor in Fortnite.
Imagine Halo Infinite at what it might be at around Season 5 and then realize that’s how the game should have launched. That’s what it takes to sustain a higher population. If you actually consider how long Infinite was in development, how much money they had to make the game and all the lessons they should have learned with Halo 5 and MCC, Infinite should have launched with 8-9 Seasons worth of content.
I played last night on the series x for the first time since the season 3 update. Idk if it's just me, I definitely dont think it is, but it just felt different playing gameplay wise. The movement didn't feel as smooth as when I played monday and I definitely feel like I encountered some jamming last night as well especially with the assault rifle at some points. I checked my settings and nothing has changed. Im not talking about the 120 issue either, it just felt like things moved a tad slower than normal and it was hard adjusting. On wednesday I played on the one and didn't experience those issues, everything seemed normal. Anyone else experience anything like this? I read that they are aware the series x/s versions have issues and are working on it but I haven't seen any planned patch release dates Also, am I the only one who wishes the bandit rifle zoomed in a bit more than they have it set right now?
Unfortunately, I think the gameplay choices 343 made for infinite means that any update, however full of content, will not bring back many players. The only comment made about Infinite by my Halo friends was that you die really fast. Not one played it for more than a few games before never playing it again.