Is There Any Hope for Halo? 

Thanks to Bespoke Post for sponsoring this video! New subscribers get 20% off their first box - go to www.bespokepost.com/act20 and enter code ACT20 at checkout. With the recent layoffs at Microsoft and 343 Industries, many have started to question the future of Halo Infinite and the franchise itself. Is there any hope for Halo? After so much has gone wrong? Only one way to find out...

Joe was the master of Halo storytelling but when the world needed him most….he vanished.

4:37 "Now is not a good time to ask when are playable elites coming back, you know the answer, its never" that hurts like energy daggers in both hearts

As someone who owns a PS5 (personal preference). I have to say it's sad to see what's happening to Halo. It's such an iconic and important franchise. The legacy and inspiration it's had can't be denied.

Halo will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart. Halo CE-Reach was just perfection. The golden ages.

I’ve finally accepted that Halo will never be the same. Reach was supposed to be the end, and it was.

As someone who works in the film industry, I think that incompetent leadership is just everywhere in art and entertainment. A lot of people at the top have never created anything in their lives, so they just lack any perspective on what it takes to make a AAA game or billion dollar movie.

Halo 4: Is there any hope for halo? Halo5: Is there any hope for halo? Halo infinite: Is there any hope for halo?

Infinite's art direction was one of the things they got right.

AS a programer I can say without a shadow of a doubt that trying to fix someone else's code is fkn hard af especially when you dont have the person who worked on it to ask questions

One of the best things 343 has done with halo, is create that scene of the Spartan looking super sad and alone. It allows everyone to express how they are feeling, as the chief.

I will give 343 massive credit for delivering and polishing the MCC on PC over the last 3 years. When new Halo games are blundered and broken, at least we'll always have a functional MCC.

It seemed like the campaign map was designed to be opened up. There were distant islands that looked quite developed and open to exploration.

19:56 hits hard They didn’t listen to anything the fans told them. We told them exactly what they were doing wrong, how to fix it, what to do next. And they just ignored it all.

Me then: "Halo infinite will be great, I can't wait to play it" Me now: "LIES FOR THE WEAK..... BEACONS FOR THE DELUDED"

I grew up with Halo. When I was young, my dad used what little money we had as a family at the time to get me and my siblings an Xbox. With that Xbox, he got us a couple of games, one of them being Halo: Combat Evolved. Every day when I got back from school, I would hop on to play Halo with my brother, and we would have so much dumb fun. Halo 2 came out eventually and that was all we could think of for a long time. Late nights playing Halo 2 on Xbox Live, trashing others online and then proceeding to get no kills for the entire game... This is what dominated my life, along with my brother and many others. When the "Believe" ad campaign had rolled out for Halo 3, the excitement was at an all-time high. My brother and I would spend hours every day talking about how excited we were for Halo 3, while playing Halo 2 to prepare ourselves. Despite our attempts, nothing could've prepared us for what Halo 3 would mean for us both. We got our copy of Halo 3 and spent an entire day going through that campaign split-screen. When we got to the end of the warthog run, we both couldn't stop from sobbing. We moved a ton throughout our childhood, and could never carry many true friendships because of that. When everything would change around us, the Master Chief and Cortana were there for us. The Arbiter was there for us. Sgt Johnson was there for us. The countless nameless marines and ODSTs were there for us. Halo and its community was always still there for us. My brother and I spent so many hours online playing Halo 3, goofing off, having fun, and waiting for the news on where Halo was going to go. Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach were just as incredible to us when they came out. They only served to deepen our love for the franchise. These memories that my brother and I have made with this series will never disappear. They are part of our identities now. That being said, it does sadden me to see the state in which Halo has found itself in, these days. I truly do hope that things can get better and more people can experience Halo like my brother and I did. I think I'm done with the series. I will cherish every moment I spent with Halo and I will remember it all, but I think that's what it needs to stay as for me; a distant and bittersweet, yet core memory. P.S. Sorry for the wall of text.

"The problem was you have 3 AI companions from start to finish" Halo 5 gave me Gears of War PTSD of AI teammates going from Brick intelligence to Sub-Brick when you go down and they try to reanimate you. Just to get executed or die of sadness and cringe

I remember the Halo 5 days, and your older videos. I thought the worst of Halo was behind us. It's disappointing to see the state of Infinite right now. This should've been revival for the series.

I still can't believe that after all their failures, 343 had the arrogance to think they could pull off a live service game.

You know, when I first heard of the 10 year service that Infinite promised I thought that perhaps they will expand the campaign in chapters. Tbh I wish they did that even if it was dlc because one of the main things about Halo is the story itself. Shame that it's probably never going to happen 😞.

Watching this happen to halo over the last decade has been like watching a part of my childhood die

My biggest gripe with Halo Infinite was that I couldn't command Marines and even when I saved them they would just follow me around and disappear if I fast travelled. I really wish I could've assigned them to fire bases and have them defend those areas cause it's not like the banished would just ignore losing territory

I had another rewatch of Crowbcat's "Remember Halo" video yesterday... I don't think it's possible to have that experience again. Not just because of youth and nostalgia; but online systems, mobile phones and spoilers, streamers, terrible management and messaging and the fall of the industry. It'll never bee the same again. But those days were marvellous...

12:35 my man was struggling to maintain eye contact

It feels like what’s carrying Halo right now is the community with 343 supporting as much as they can & as much as Microsoft is willing, not the other way around.

I feel so bad for you, Halo fans. I don't know what the future holds, but most of us who like space games; we're here for you.

Before Halo Infinite came out, me and my friend realized how closely Halo games resembled the Star Wars movies in their quality and reception, and my friend asked if that meant Halo Infinite was going to be The Rise of Skywalker of Halo. I hoped not, but....

19:26 for a second I thought you were talking about within the company. Like going after executives. Juuust for a second 😂

When you started listing all the contracted work that was done on Infinite, something interesting clicked to me. The utility industry has a very similar trend, most of them do not have engineering departments anymore. Why? Because it's cheaper to hire out contracted work from a consultant than employee a full team of engineers. Maybe not front, but if you look at the long term (paying for benefits, pensions, etc.) it comes down to a numbers game.

When you said that Halo 5 came out 7 years ago, you hit me with a big old nostalgia slap

My best memories of gaming are in halo 2 and 3 and they'll never be able to ruin that. No matter how hard they try.

I don't know how much more of this my heart can handle.

I've been following the state of the franchise fairly closely and good lord the section of the video with the list of all of the Senior Developers and Executives at 343 Industries who have left in the last 4 years was incredibly depressing to watch

Tom French was one of my favorites at 343i, he was always enthusiastic & wanted to honor what came before & create something new. My heart goes out to those who lost their jobs too.

The thing I loved most about the old halo games was I could unlock cool armor on my own, create my own game mode, and maps. It just really felt like a community. I remember a lot of multiplayer matches ending and the whole lobby joins a custom match after. Miss those days

343i halo games all feel like separate games. The stories aren't directly connected to eachother because of the stuff they built up gets solved in the books and comics. Infinite while being the visually the best halo also had that problem. It's like missing an entire previous game and also kept the story unfinished.

I worked in one of the three Microsoft Global HR shared service centers. It's not only the sheer number of contracting companies. Microsoft also has a policy for orange badges called "18x6", this consists of a contractor being able to work 18 months straight, and then they have to "rest" for 6 months. This is a global policy and affects all subsidiaries and products, from LinkedIn to office, azure, etc. That perhaps could explain a lot

I think that line from pet seminary. "Some times, dead is better." best sumed up why some good franchises should not be over milked for profit.

"Sometimes, dead is better" summarized it pretty well. I'll always have the memories of the Bungie days

20:20 technically speaking you can play splitscreen mainly in multiplayer depending on which version of the Xboxone you have. Unfortunately there's no split-screen co-op for the campaign which is just as depressing to know that we will probably will never get campaign dlc.

yo, I just wanna say, I love the small edits throughout the video. That "LIAR" from Anakin fuckin' floored me lmao

This is what happens when you have accountants running creative. They try to fit everything in a box but this isn't possible when it comes to creative endeavours

As someone that fell in love with Gaming because of Halo and bought my own console to specifically play Halo after playing it for countless hours at my mate's houses.. The current state of Halo breaks my heart icl

I don't get why Microsoft wouldn't try a different studio for halo and let 343 work on a smaller project of their own it is clear they can't handle a project of this scale

They need to focus on campaign and forge as the main staples. Then build from there on the rest of the content.

The fact that Halo infinite was an open world game that could EASILY have incorporated coop and an almost free canvas to pump out content on top of and they didn't take advantage of that is astounding. I would love to be a fly in the wall on those board room meetings where those idiots through out those ideas....

I work as a contractor for Microsoft and have been effected by their hiring freeze ( I don't work with the gaming side of things) and yeah their relationship with contractors leads to some crappy decisions. I have been in company wide meetings where the Microsoft managers tell us things are going great and we are hitting all of our targets, only for a week later those same managers come back and tell us we are all losing our jobs and a different company was taking our contract and we were to teach the new company how to replace us. Guess how good their training was...

Management has been killer across the industry. I feel that management focusing solely in profits is what's hurting them, as chasing the dollar signs is hurting the creative process/making not a fun game/product. Whereas if they focused on making a good, fun, playable product then the profits will follow.

At this point I would like to see other studios take a crack at the gameplay loop. Perhaps a frostbite-realistic environment approach could give a unique sandbox. I’m thinking battlefront but with banished and unsc factions. Could give them an opportunity to flesh out weapons and vehicles to accommodate large maps and modes. Anyways this is what I wanted after warzone and invasion but one can dream

Once again, the Act Man being the most honest and upfront Halo youtuber regarding 343 and its state. Thanks for these videos, as painful as they are.

What makes this downfall the even more heartbreaking is the fact of how close they were to making a great game, the gameplay felt great, and pvp was fun the hard part was finished, and at the FUCKING finish line they fumbled it, it was THIS close man.

Given how well ID did at reviving DOOM that embodied everything great about old school shooters while giving it modern day quality of life improvements and a facelift, I would love to see them tackle the next Halo.

i think the whole "advertise and then years of silence" is a business strategy to not stem too much hype, or let hype die down incase the game doesnt perform aswell as the business wanted, or as well as the customer was expecting, i mean we know what happened to no mans sky

I think another core issue with 343 is that they’ve literally never accurately identified their audience. Time and time again they targeted and pursued the wrong audience when really they just needed to tend to the longtime, dedicated Halo fans who love the franchise for community and casual fun. 343 has never realized this key aspect imo

I want to believe the franchise can recover... I want halo fans to have a good time :c

I like to point out that 343 genuinely did have a lot of talent at the studio it sucks to see such talent so poorly mishandled Microsoft after the activision acquisition ( if it even goes through) they need to stop and focus on games it’s getting ridiculous how many good series they have and all of them never get to see the light of day until 10 years later

The act man you should try Dead space remaster remake I mean you talked about the classic ones so much you should go ahead and try the the remastered version and it's two endings

These are truly the dark times. I don't think the franchise has ever been in worse than it is right now.

"Let's cut our losses and start over" and "we need a new batch of contractors" are basically the same mentality deployed at the end of each game

I am having tons of fun with Shadow Warrior 3 on Gamepass on Series X anyway. a funny game that is actually a riot to play.

You should watch the count of monte cristo (2002), it hits a similar spot.

Hey just wanna throw this out there, I worked at Experis and was on Infinite for a few years up until just after it released. Microsoft outsources a lot of testing from Experis for a whole bunch of titles, not just Halo, so seeing that in the credits of MS games is very typical. QA is always doing the best we can, but at a certain point there isn't much we can do and it comes down to developers not having the bandwidth to actually take care of every problem QA is aware of and reporting.

Halo 1-3 were simple and what made it even better back then which I have never ever seen since was how Bungie engaged with the community, weekly updates, playlist updates, holiday events. All of that was key

Chrono Trigger music at 1:02 😍😍😍

yes, community-made content via Forge and other tools are spicing up Halo Infinite and MCC as we speak and will surely keep the fanbase alive even if 343 can't provide content

They could do so much stuff with this franchise. Movies about the big wars (Human/Forerunner, Forerunner/Flood), side games about Banished characters or maybe the Swords of Sangheilios, a TV series that isn’t a weird fanfic, but nah

It hurts so much to be a halo fan rn. Halo is the reason why I got into gaming in the first place and the fact that it’s sunk this low is just painful. I always had hope that halo would return in some way with a big comeback and give players a game that we would enjoy but were it so easy.😔

I work for a company where it seems like our corporate leadership is constantly dropping the ball. I've been in an office position for 4.5 years now and the amount of incompetence I've seen in my own company and those we work with is nothing short of astounding. I worked on factory floors for 13 years before surprising myself by landing an office position at the company I worked the floor for. I suffered from imposter syndrome for so long, wondering if I was truly capable enough for such a role. I can confidently say now that that fear is gone. I am paid significantly less than people significantly less effective. And I bring this up because I see so clearly now how much ineptitude there is in these leadership roles. Honestly it's a bit frightening. So many people are paid such high wages to fumble their way through and fuck things up for those that are paid less and actually doing the work that matters. It's everywhere.

Even as a sony fan it's sad to see something like this happen to one of the greatest and most iconic shooters, hope better days are ahead for everyone

Well boys, even though things look dire, I still feel gratitude for Halo MCC. No matter what happens with Halo in the future, I will be playing H3 customs or social every week. Never stopped playing Halo since 2007.

I think the damage has been done and it's now a franchise running on dwindling nostalgia factor, it's a shame to see it happen but if it somehow gets flipped around I would be seriously shocked

Well actually. Since theyve released forge and custom games browser, as well as fixed the ranked system and desync quite a bit… the games much much better. Its almost on track to be as good as the classic halo we love.

The thing that hurts the most is all the abandoned story threads they gave up on and then off screen killing off characters. Remember in halo 4 when master chief’s evolution was accelerated by the librarian?? Nothing since 😢

"You're on your own Noble, Staten out."

Remember when they listened to criticism about how the needler sounded and fixed it? Gave me so much hope for the game man.

That comment that said "This is bad news disguised as good news" was pretty on point. Like the Costa Concordia when the ship was sinking and the intercom told people things were fine.

There is a lot of halo that had some great stuff in them they can round up and put all together in one pot to make an amazing game. But I also know the issues you can have working with so many different teams to pull something together. Everyone has their input but when you try to make it work it just back fires. Remember the time a bunch of devs hung out in a basement to make a game and it blew up in popularity? It's just far better to have a core group than a mixed bag of devs, not saying contracting is wrong just it adds more too many hands in the cookie jar situation.

"Where is Infection?" I couldn't help but laugh when that question was brought up. The undeniable truth is making a flagship title successful can be very challenging, and it seemed like there were too many uncooked eggs in the basket. Microsoft's incompetent leadership has led 343 and the community to struggle

Even though it’s usually because of something bad, I love it when the actman talks about Halo

That odst rain music in the background hit different

I’m convinced that 343 was some kind of weird money laundering front or something. Nothing else makes sense why they were allowed to take forever (TWELVE YEARS) to make three mid games while running Microsoft’s only flagship IP into the ground

It's just crazy that the people who grow up with Halo might have to be in their forties if Halo actually becomes good again.

As sad a state as the Halo franchise is in, it's still refreshing to have your videos so thoroughly breaking things down, Act Man. Don't ever stop doing what you're doing.

Waking up and seeeing new act man video is my fav type of morning

apparently 343i didn't learn from outsourcing MCC development

Dual wielding weapons should have made a comeback, its one of the things that made the older games fun

A lot of times Contractors are working in the same building, eating the same food, working on the same work. Contractors are not inherently worse, but this dynamic creates workers who are doing the same amount of work at the same degree of difficulty for a quarter of the pay (and they know it) it creates a disgruntled, jaded workforce.

This isn't the first time they abruptly stopped development of a storyline. Y'all remember Spartan Ops in Halo 4? It really said "Season 1" at the top like they were going to have multiple seasons

A few days after this video was posted, 343 announced they would stop using their Slipspace game engine & instead start from scratch on the Unreal Engine Depression intensifies

I was a kid in highschool when Liquid Development was working on halo 4's Armor, I got a sneak peak into the design change and was appalled. Not their fault of course but seeing you mention them brought back that memory.

It always felt like they were using Joe as a shield to deliver bad news, kind of glad that everyone is sensible enough to know it’s all 343’s management’s fault

Halo needs to be a universe with different games and gameplays in it: Halo, the arena FPS that doesn't need to be super big anymore, the BF/CoD arcade FPS, the Dishonored type of immersive sim solo game, etc... All connected aesthetically and narratively, but with different gameplays.

been worried about the future of the halo franchise since 2014, and I will be everytime I see 343 industries develop another halo game.

Actually contracting your QA team is not a bad idea because they can give you less biased feedback. The problem is then having the processes in place to follow up on that feedback.

That 'Master Chief lost in space' ending looks like it should have been the real end every year.

Bloody well said & put together mate.

The fact the art team got hit and not who ever programmed the sound for multiplayer is a crime against god. This game has been out over a year and I still cannot hear a rocket launcher being fired by an enemy two feet behind me in a ranked game mode that is supposed to be the platform for an "esport"

Its crazy to hear the amount of people that left and how long they were with the company. Sounds like the foundation gave way and this skyscraper doesn't have the support to stand straight for much longer without it.

We truly live in a dark age of entertainment, which is a reflection of society as a whole being very sick at the moment. I’ve learned to be grateful for as much as you can in life; so I will say, that I was lucky to grow up during the best time in video game history. The hype around Halo 3 can never be topped, and you simply had to be there to understand why.

HOW to prevent crashes mid-match. Hard RESET the game and refresh it before each match. This works 99% of the time 👍. I only crashed once in the past 3 days of doing this, thats pretty good… 😢 but still its annoying having to do this.