Halo Infinite Will Launch In Fall 2021

Hopefully it is not delayed again.

That is way longer then I thought.. so outside of some times exclusives we won't see a true first party exclusive for at least a year from the console launch.. that is kinda insane

No reason to go next-gen yet then i'll gladly wait

No surprise here. Just make it the best game it can be! 👍🏻

straps on tinfoil hat

Hmmm didn't Spencer say he was kinda glad that Halo was cancelled so it'll be ready for when series X stock wasn't an issue, what if that "fall 2021" release date isn't for when the game is done but when they expect stock issues to be resolved.
Removes tinfoil hat

Interesting. This, I assume, means Xbox is going to have a pretty busy run of games in autumn/winter.

There's no game I'm looking forward to more than Infinite, and there's no game I'd rather wait for than Infinite. Now, let's see what the other 2 dozen MS studios churn out in the meantime.

Good. Give me time to catch up on other stuff

Not surprised - it looked like it needed a lot of work to get it up to the standard a 'flagship' title for a console should be...

Ouch... hard pill to swallow. I think Microsoft owes consumers an explanation of their plan until Halo hits then. "Buy Gamepass" isn't a good enough reason for millions of PS4 owners to start picking up Series X/S's

Yikes!

Let’s just hope 343i can deliver on their promise when the games finally comes out.

343 got this, Halo Infinite is gonna be amazing..

Pretty much the timeframe I thought it would be given next year is Halo's 20th anniversary. I wonder if the Game Awards will answer what's happening for Xbox Game Studios before Infinite.

Ugh, do they have any big exclusives before then? They're really gonna struggle to compete with PS5 over the first year or so.

Nice! Glad it's coming out before my pass sub expires!

I’ll be happy to wait for the inevitable halo special edition series x.

@BrilliantBill yeah the $7 billion price tag for Zenimax will have to show revenue growth in the xbox economy. Microsoft could have easily shifted those assets towards Azure and their competition with AWS. If they don't pursue a larger share of the console market then that expected growth will need to be from pc/mobile. Neither one of those screams great news for the Series, even with Xcloud.

So many games on “last gen” for me to play and beat... so I will gladly pick up a series x and halo on launch day

Maybe I'll be able to get a series x by than

@Dezzy normally I’d tend to agree. But I also don’t think exclusives are everything in the general market. Ps4s first year and a half were not good exclusive wise at all (pre Bloodbourne, which is still niche) and Xbox one actually had intriguing exclusives in the first couple years (Ryse, Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, etc) but the generation still went the way it did.

Granted, the 100 dollars less thing mattered then. Maybe the series s and gamepass will have the pull they’re wanting it to?

The screenshots posted in the Inside Infinite article are just gorgeous. 343 is doing an outstanding job to deliver the best game possible, I'm sure of it.

I can wait one year, no problem.

I just want my master chief nice and shiny.

Infinite is the amount of time you'll be waiting for release

@RedShirtRod
You'd be surprised. I switched from PS4 because of Game Pass. Well, that and being bored with the formula for Sony exclusives being cinematic action adventure games. In my case I have the entire Halo series to catch up on so I will gladly wait for Infinite

Called it when they did what they did and I’m glad as it will give them time.
True top games take time so let’s give it time.
Fall 2021 is going to be an important time.
I also said Halo and Forza Fall 2021.
Now let’s see the announcement for Forza fall 2021.

@KelticDevil
I called it when they cancelled the release.
And I’m glad, it will make it the game it should be.
Also called Forza for fall 2021, just have wait for that announcement now 😎

Anyway never mind Halo, they need to get consoles to market. I think the timing of Halo due to console shortages is better placed fall 2021.

Please understand

I’m still trying to force myself to finish halo 2 😴

Wait, insider flighting? As in...?

I realize that not every new console can launch with a "killer app" like Halo: Combat Evolved or Zelda: Breath of the WIld, but first-party exclusives are a huge deal in prompting many consumers' console buying decisions. They may both be selling like crazy, but perhaps both the Series X/S and the PS5 would have benefited from A) more time to work out their respective technical kinks (especially the latter platform) and B) each had at least one such system-selling, original title to go alongside it, as opposed to rushing them out the door to make a Christmas sales window during a COVID-ravaged year. With the delay of Halo: Infinite, it might even have been better to hold off the Series X/S until next fall in some respects. Not saying there won't be any other great games coming between now and then, but when backwards compatibility is arguably your biggest sales pitch at the launch of a new console, it's a sign you maybe should have waited a bit (and I say this as a huge fan of BC).

@themightyant
Much appreciated, thanks I'm not attached to any platform so whenever I feel like it I switch to a different one. I've had my XSX since launch day and have been loving it! The console, Game Pass and backward compatibility are all winners in my book. PS+ collection is a nice thing, but only when you're new to Playstation. I've already played these games and frankly I feel Game Pass is unmatched in terms of games on offer. Up until recently I wouldn't play an indie if my life depended on it. Since switching to Xbox some of the best games I've played have been indies! Ori is on my to-play list Halo, Gears, Forzas... It's all new to me. You're right- it's a great time to be a gamer.

@Medic_Alert Kratos will smash Mastercraig's helmet and feed him to his boy... no competition.

As much as I want Halo now, I'm glad they are taking their time to make the best game possible, plus due to console shortages this holiday season, it makes sense to release in fall 2021 as there will be more people that own the console, so more copies sold.

@xMightyMatt14x Ryse has a 69 on metacritic, and DR3 has a 6.9 user score. far from "intriguing" more like cringing

@Terrin what other timed exclusives are launching on XSX? I thought everything was true exclusive.

@themightyant
I agree with your criticisms! I have around 50 games on my Play Later list and new ones keep coming. Time management becomes key, but I keep telling myself I won't buy a new game for a year at least (Cyberpunk 2077 being the only exception, wellz until The Falconeer drops in price a bit or enters Game Pass ). As for games leaving Game Pass- tell me about it! I couldn't finish State of Mind on GP PC because it disappeared before I reached the end. Had to see the ending on Youtube :/

@12TerribleFLOPS
It's really sad when someone sets up an account on a rival console's website just to troll (with that dumb username to boot). Go play with your Kratos boy!

@gollumb82 A rival console?

@themightyant
If only PS5 wasn't the size of a building, I'd have gone with it this generation. I'll go with Series S next Christmas or whatever.

@xMightyMatt14x

Yeah but Playstation won the first couple of years of the last gen by being cheaper, more powerful, and not annoying fans with the always-online nonsense. They did fine without the exclusives. Xbox currently do need them in my opinion!

MS really need to start announcing their 2021 games.

PS5 has Horizon 2, GT7, Rachet and Clank and God of War Ragnarok, not counting the timed exclusives.

So far, only Halo Infinite confirmed for 2021 and the rest are rumours for now.
Let's hope they drop some bombs at The Game Awards...

@12TerribleFLOPS the ones that I can think of top of my head
The medium
The gunk
Phantasy star 2 new genisis
Crossfirex
Dark tide
Also they do alot of indie timed exclusive for game pass

Stuff like call of the sea and Tetris effect connected

I can wait, tbh.

@12TerribleFLOPS that’s retrospective. You have to remember the time itself. They were big budget AAA games that drew attention and were doing new things that “felt next gen”. I’m not sure what Titanfalls score is because I don’t care about meta critic but it definitely garnered attention at the time. The point I was making wasn’t that Xbox’s big budget exclusives were better but that they actually existed whereas Sony didn’t have really any beyond killzone for almost two years.

@Dezzy and that’s fair. That’s why I ended my original comment the way I did acknowledging that difference as well. I think what Xbox is hoping to do is use gamepass and series s to draw more people in. That’s their attempt to be “cheaper” so to speak. So far it’s hard to tell but at the very least they seem to be more successful than last gen to start.

@Dezzy

“Big exclusives”?

I guess it matters on what you consider “big”. And what does Sony have coming before then? Maybe Ratchet & Clank? And won’t that be like the 48th game in that series at this point? The next Horizon has no release date either. And it’s coming out on PS4.

Gran Turismo just got delayed. And if you think God Of War is coming out in 2021, I’ve got a bridge to sell ya. Lol.

@gollumb82

Yea I noticed that troll just signed up too. He is pathetic. I suggest hitting the “ignore” button on him, like I am about to do.

@12TerribleFLOPS

Creating a new account just to come onto an Xbox website & troll? You are a sad, pathetic little man.

Bye 👋, little Pony troll.

@KelticDevil I’m with you. I think people are in for a surprise over the next few years with how little will come out across the board. I feel like by next e3 we will all know a good amount of the games coming for both consoles but will be waiting years for most of them. The pandemic is going to affect every games schedule.

To add to your thinking, 2 of Sony’s biggest studios just shipped this year so they are at least three or four years out in those studios (if not more since naughty dog is one). God of war and horizon 2 have already been announced and miles morales just released as well. I can’t even think of a Sony studio now that’s in a position to realistically announce something new that is also coming soon.

As for ms, they have over 20 studios now and they have all been hiring. Even outside of what’s already been announced, like avowed, fable, state of decay 3, etc, there are still studios that haven’t announced anything who have been working for years now (initiative, compulsion, etc.)

@BrilliantBill pretty sure they changed GT7 to just in development so it's mostly likely not coming until 2022. I'm still of the opinion that next year won't be filled with games as we've seen a lot of delays in games that didn't need mocap or orchestra work...so I'd imagine that the ones that do will be even further delayed. A lot of games were pushed from 2020 to 2021 and i think that will help the year not look as barren. Also for GoW i haven't heard one respected media person actually believe it's coming next year, it's just a marketing place holder to then delay.

2022 should be a badass year for gaming though.

@Terrin oh, i dont remember them saying those games were timed. thanks

@xMightyMatt14x

Great point about Sony’s studios. That could be why they are moneyhatting so many timed 3rd party deals.

@xMightyMatt14x i get what you saying, I was just saying those games weren't enticing enough to buy a $500 console for. launch games are usually no good tho unless its a sequel to games that are already big

I’m happy to wait, they need to get this right.

It doesn’t suit MS though, next year looks set to be lacking with first party offerings again. Let’s just hope gamepass continues to offer the value it does. I’m enjoying the likes of Haven and Star Renegades on the service and while not next gen games by any stretch they’re fun.

@Krzzystuff I’d be amazed if God of War drops next year, it’s the reason I’m getting a PS5. If it doesn’t, the teaser trailer was really dishonest, as they’ll have known easily it wouldn’t make 21.

Funny how the same people calling me a troll are the ones hoping God of War gets delayed in an article thats about Halo getting delayed... Im just here for the conversations

@KelticDevil

PS5 has already had Demons Souls and Miles Morales.

Big just means anything with a large budget and popular appeal.

@12TerribleFLOPS
Anytime Xbox says console launch exclusive that's what there term for timed exclusive

@themightyant I agree, I never saw the outrage and the need for all the changes in the game. The gameplay was spot-on Halo CE. It looked like a proper Halo campaign. And if we're honest, when has Halo ever been big on story development? Most Halo story happened at the beginning, the end, and occasional twists when transitioning to new areas. It's not exactly a walking simulator by nature. The story was always very immersive, but never occupied that much of the actual game, it was mostly told through the environment. (Or as the Soulsborne crowd calls it, "lore" )

But, yeah, I don't know how open world fits the "20 seconds of fun every 3 minutes" mantra of Halo 3. And in reality, it just doesn't. The pacing can't be the same as the very very linear formula of the original trilogy and has to reinvent it somehow. I'm of mixed mind. I used to love open world but the formula has been so overdone over and over and over for 2 generations and counting now that I'm kind of tired of it and looking for a new formula. But he linear on-rails gameplay of the 6th and 7th gen games isn't what the new game should be either.

I've never been convinced it needed to be remade so intensely. The graphics weren't "next gen" - it seemed like primarily an X1X game when shown. But at the time I didn't think that was bad, as it was always an X1X game, cross releasing, as far as I understood. I think the backlash had less to do with what Halo really needed and more to do with Sony selling "generations" at that time where everyone was convinced that Sony was building everything from the ground up for PS5 and everything was next-gen and MS was holding back for their old consoles. I'm convinced if the Halo reveal happened a few weeks later when Sony finally admitted everything but ratchet was just a dolled up PS4 game, the Halo backlash would never have happened.

Someone forgot to post this:

@xMightyMatt14x Sony's strategy is to clearly front-load the generation with exclusives and timed exclusives to get that critical early momentum. MS had no chance of doing that due to the timing of studio acquisitions in the past few years, but they'll have an interesting back half of the generation with a ton of big studios all sitting on years of work. I agree, Santa Monica, Guerilla, ND have just released and will be years away from anything big again. Insomniac....Miles is really really small and they built it on the back of SM PS4, so that probably took less work than we think, but they're also just about to dump Ratchet. They more or less admitted working on SM2 with Facegate, though, and I'm betting most of the Miles work was really Sm2 work. I could see them realistically releasing that in the next 2 years. Bend? They don't seem to be in good graces after Days kind of bombed. And SP is almost certainly doing GoT2 suddenly since 1 was such a success. One strength/weakness is Sony seems to be in all-sequels mode now, and Ryan pretty much directly said so with his "new IPs are risky" speech. They can crank out sequels faster than they can invent new brands.....but that also kills a lot of what people loved about them if they just became another Ubi with the annual Horizon dump.

MS has the good position to not be cranking out sequels because they have no IPs to create sequels for outside the Bethesda stuff that was sequels once every 15 years already

@Gaming365247 Indeed. I want the best Halo experience possible, yet regardless, it is better for us to recieve a completed project than any half-hearted effort. I can wait until Fall 2021; even later if I must....of course, I truly hate to, but it is what it is. Godspeed to the development teams behind it

@themightyant Yeah, I mean Halo has a great story world, and an immersive....I guess you could say Half-Life style story telling (I hate Half-Life's story telling, you miss conversations by just playing the game, but Halo did it right by virtue of the primary NPC being "in your head" canonically. ) But it's not exactly narrative-driven or cut-scene heavy. The best and worst story level of the Halo series remains 343 Guilty Spark. Very atmospheric, immersive "wait, what's going on?" story telling. It didn't hit you with cutscenes and exposition, and yet told a lot of story just by walking and looking. OTOH it introduced the Flood and the game fell off a cliff after that. (I truly hope Mr. Staten finally understands we do not love the Flood! )

Heh, yeah, whenever I see "next calendar year" as a release date I always assume it really means "next, next calendar year." How many games, even a decade and a half ago with "Q4 next year" windows actually arrived that year? Halo was Q4 2020....which means Q4 2021. That's an extreme case. Several Sony titles already slid back. I love how one of the Bethesda Sony titles still says it'll release 2020 in the on-console storefront. Most things say "2021" or "recently announced" (read: 2024). A few are "early 2021" or "2021". But the Bethesda one...was it Ghostwire? Cant remember. But it says "2020." I'm sure they'll spontaneously drop a game Christmas week.....that'll help sales! Then again it's a PS exclusive from a now-XBox studio. There could be politics on that.

Yeah, I definitely think Miles is actually "SM2 Preview." It's overpriced, and low on content, but there's no denying the world is immaculate and disproportionately detailed for a tiny game like that. I think that's really the city of SM2, meaning they already have it pretty much finished, world-wise, and can crank out full SM2 much sooner than we think. "Facegate" also implies they're already deep into character design and probably mocap as well if they're already retconning a new model actor into the existing games. They didn't hire a new model just for Miles DLC. If there's a movie coming up, they can easily tie it.

Days - not my kind of game, so I'm a bit outside the buzz on that, but yeah, my sense is Sony is interested in mega box office hits, and only mega box office hits, and isn't keen on experimentation and smaller brands at this point. They've gone deep, deep into their hollywood studio mentality at SIE (which I think was part of the friction between Ryan and Layden to begin with.) I'm not sure that's a good plan, but it seems to be the one they're going with. Days doesn't fit that format. I cringed when Ryan was praising the performance of GoT. Fantastic game worthy of all the praise - but, I heard the "sequelitis" wheels grinding in his head already, and I don't like that sound. Great game = semi-annual franchise is the mindset of every western game exec. They could try to build it out into a bigger brand second time around. But I'm betting they axe it. Besides they already have their zombie thriller darling in TLoU, they don't need a second dead-weight to carry in the same genre.

ND I'm sure is well into Uncharted 5...6...Reboot....Uncharted (2021) or whatever on team 2. I assume they started that after 4, and there was only one game in the series last gen plus the stand-alone Chloe story. But I can't see them having anything other than that until late in the gen again. We're talking Fable-era. Insomniac is already running 2 series (SM and Ratchet) so their cards are probably on the table. Guerilla....maybe there's a KZ in the works. It's been a long while. I figured HzD really superceded that. I've been hoping for another inFamous from SP for years....but now that I think about it, it looks like they handed off the inFamous formula to Insomniac. Spiderman is basically inFamous 1 with a licensed Marvel skin and Arkham combat, and the upgraded traversal given at the start. No need for a new inFamous with Spidey around (unfortunately.)

Honestly, I think if the world would let me forget Naughty Dog exists, I'd end up with a more positive mood on Sony games. I like most of their games, always have. But the constant feeling that ND=Sony drives me up a wall. I'm a sucker for Uncharted for odd reasons, but otherwise, I've never liked ND, even before they were Sony. Jak1 is the best game they ever made. Crash is an abomination the world should have forgotten (I realize I've now been blacklisted from entry into the UK for that comment. )

As for MS, I'm not surprised at all. The timeline physically couldn't have worked any other way. Matrick's wholesale destruction of MSGS was going to have a decade plus long story arc. He literally closed almost all of MSGS. MSGS predated Xbox and goes back to classic Windows gaming. That's where Win95-OSR2's "Hover!" game came from. Flight sim, AoE. Dissolving Ensemble was an open testament to his scorched Earth destruction.

Imagine if Jim Ryan were to go down and just shut down almost all of SIE within 5 years. ND, Guerilla, Insomniac, Santa Monica, Sp, every last one of them closed, gutted, and the staff scattered to the winds in a dozen indie startups, EA, Ubi, anywhere. How long would it take for Sony to build up or buy out enough studios to have what they have in 2020? That's where MS has been. Matrick spent from 2009-2014 gutting every trace of MSGS. By the time Spencer was able to slow the bleeding and cauterize it to the point of an almost total brand reboot, a feat that would have been impossible for even a Sony sized-company following that destruction, relying on deep MS pockets to basically launch XBox a second time, we were in 2017. Most of the buyouts have been 2018-2020. With 2020 still containing a lot of contract releases for multiplat games from those buyouts. It was just impossible to have AAA games ready from that reboot before, if we're being really honest, 2023. 2022 if they had stuff already in progress to absorb that wasn't publisher-committed already. In reality 2023-2025 is when XBS is going to get into full swing. And doing it early just was never going to be possible. It took from 2017-2020 just to get back to what they had in 2003. If it weren't part of a Big Data company, XBox would have been toast in 2014 and Matrick would be mandatory business school text for how extreme cost-cutting can decimate a big company.

@Kefka2589 I think we need a middle ground. MS has actually been the home of that middle ground for a while with things like Ori and Gears Tactics. But I'm sure they'll go full AAA once they can.

The indies are too low budget. They feel like games from the mid-90s at best. Early 90's at worst. They either fashion themselves as though they landed on the late NES or early SNES, or as weird shareware DOS games with minimal content. The AAA has become Video games by Michael Bay.

Before we kept hearing "AAA", "Big" video games were things like Baldur's Gate, Quake, AvP, AoE, Starcraft, Diablo, Ocarina of Time was bigger than big, top budget, few could compete. And all of these games were from independent studios who signed with a publisher. Today they're called "indies" - but that was just "games company" not "indie" back then. The switch from the book publisher model to the golden age hollywood "studio system" is what changed it. "games" started coming from the publishers, not the studios. The the studios started getting absorbed into publishers. It broke everything. "Indies" doesn't replace the old "normal studio" and is instead weird little mini-budget studios. Too small to fit the vision of what used to be. Obsidian was the closest to "normal studio" that remained. But now they're part of the publisher. inExile was former publisher management turned pocket-sized indie. Now part of the bigger publisher. I don't think gaming can realistically live in the 90's like most of the "indies" currently do. But I don't know there's a publishing model that will take up "normal sized independent companies" either.

Remember when id was a studio with one modest office building before they were Zenimax before they were Microsoft? Today that would be called an "indie." Back then they were called the biggest of the biggest of the big. Every employee got a new Lamborghini for signing on. Today that would be "budget indie." Something's wrong with that.

@RedShirtRod I did. And very happy to have moved here.

@Dezzy

Spider-Man: MM is, basically, lengthy DLC. And Demon’s Souls is a remaster of a niche PS3 game. And it didn’t even crack the top 10 in sales after it launched on PS5.

To me, neither of those games are “big” games to me. But we all have our own opinions. 👍🏻

@themightyant The Flood, to me, broke what was special about CE. The "smart" enemies that made battles almost human and tactical set it apart (for the time, anyway.) The flood became a DOOM run & gun (which at the time was what most shooters were), and broke everything that made Halo stand out. Yeah, the same 3 enemies got monotonous, but I was hoping for new tactics and enemies that were intelligent and strategic....not swarms and hordes racing at me....they were annoying as anything to keep shooting. I hate the library fiercely.

Half-Life.....I always thought the Half-Life story telling was terrible. But worse, the story itself was terrible. HL2 finished in a way that never even conveyed what was going on, it was a mishmash of drop min moments with a lack of total context. Truly hate that thing. Actually I heard from Valve guys who also hated that thing. Maybe that has something to do with the lack of HL3. But then you're one of those odd people that actually like Soulsborne "story" I don't know what kind of nutrients you require in your mouth hole on your world

If ND aren't working on Uncharted, then Uncharted 5 may be scrapped. Wouldn't be surprised. Drake's daughter sounds like a mixed bag for how it will be received as they set it up. Nolan was Drake. They're doing the movie though.... That new studio sounds like it's kind of a mess and falling apart. Sounds like a support studio, though, not a primary. Though I will say, any game worked on by someone other than ND will be a better game for it. The best Crash games were the ones not made by ND, as well. I can't imagine ND is going to be "TLoU Studio", though, so maybe they really are working on a new IP. Interactive movie, or platformer where you run toward the camera...what other wonders can ND come up with?

Sony on AAA - That's the past. And was past management. The new management makes it clear they're all about AAA and sequels. I want more Gravity Rush and Knack. But they're making it kind of clear they don't really want to offer it. Games like that are the reasons I buy Sony, honestly, so I'm all for it. TBH I don't really care much about the cinematic blockbusters. I buy the consoles for Gravity Rush and SotC. Games they've almost directly said they're scaling back the studios for....

I still think "Indie" has to shoot at lot higher than Hollow Knight. There's a lot good about it (though I don't love it...but then I don't love soulsborne...) but I think if you compare that to what used to be a "normal" game (see: Baldur's Gate, Starcraft, etc.) it's quite a good many levels beneath that scale. And that old normal scale just isn't being done. The indies way undershoot that level, and the AAAs way overshoot.

@themightyant The flood are interesting for story. But I never appreciated their gameplay. Ironic we're talking Halo and Half-Life in one sentence, because the Flood always felt more Half-Life than something that worked for Halo, even if by story they make sense.

HL1 I have to say did everything right in terms of presentation. It's 2 that jumped the shark. The characters babbling to themselves while you're interacting with the environment never really worked, and it's all too easy to miss any dialogue because you're checking your corners in a hostile place, and the NPCs keep walking in straight lines prattling on rather than reacting to you in any way. But the story itself remains my pet peeve. It was all disjointed environments with only the most tenuous story connection and no real explanation as to what was really happening (what exactly was the crusher thing even devouring the city for by the end? It just kind of showed up nonsensically.) And then the cliffhanger. HL2 was a narrative and thematic disaster. The only things I remember about the game are the rail yard, the checker tiled prison that went on far too long, and the waterski boat that went on far too long. Oh and the tunnel that went on far too long. It was a lot of hype and always felt incomplete in most ways. Maybe if the trilogy had been completed and some things were put into a better perspective that story would have weathered better, but on its own it's both disjointed and incomplete.

The VR thing was funny though. Over a decade of false starts, and that's all they came up with. Portal was genius. HL has been in a hole since the first. It's a good thing Valve is a good retailer, because they're a lousy developer.

Always happy to provide a laugh!

Spyro is a fantastic action platformer. Hitman is a fantastic stealth game (depending on your stealth likings I'd say the best. I love Deus Ex, Splinter Cell, etc, but Hitman is the one that really nails it. Totally free form, totally open ended, you're really planning your hit. The only problem is its a time suck, I can spend days just reconning the situation before coming up with a plan of attack that's equally slow to implement. But when it all comes together it's a beautiful thing. It's basically the concept of what the original AC did with assassinations brought into simulator level detail. Fantastic, if time consuming, series.

Crash.....OMG, how did ND ever actually survive that monstrosity? And how is it a cult icon in the UK? I mean it has popularity everywhere but it seems like in the UK it sits next to tea, biscuits, and tabloids. Anybody that thinks a platformer where you run AT the camera is a good idea should have their game dev status revoked. I bought the trilogy because IDK. I may buy 4 if it gets stupid cheap just to see what it's about and if someone that's not ND can make it not suck again. The best Crash games were the PS2 ones made by a different company. They had more side scrolling and were actually kind of fun. Everybody loves ND production values, but IMO they've never been a very good studio. It's not Sony hate, just Naughty Dog hate. They should just sign on with Sony Pictures, get out of Playstation, and be done with it.

Also, we'll give you Elder Scrolls, if you give us Sunset Overdrive, back, Sony!

IMO the best Sony from a software perspective was Kutaragi's. Yeah, he screwed the pooch with PS3. But he was the heart of the whole feel of PS. Things got temporarily bleak with him gone. But the new management with House, Yoshida, Layden, Hirai really put things back in order. The great games of the past few years came from their tenure bearing fruit. PSVR is them. (Unfortunately the death of Vita is also them, but that came about because they were in the same dark place MS was with X1 at the time with PS3.) Ryan's a recent takeover. And a controversial one. You can tell when he took over. Layden looked like a bumbling idiot that E3, apparently behind the scenes those two were at war, and Layden the life-long Sony guy ended up taking a walk while upstart corporate lion Ryan got the castle. Ryan bailed out of E3, then PSX, then everything, set up the censorship and Americanization of the brand (what Laden was at war against) It's been a relatively fast conversion from "old Playstation" to "2K Sony-Activision" once he got there. That's why there's so much dislike for Ryan. The day I heard Hirai was retiring and heard the CFO was taking over Sony Corp and PS was moving to the US, I knew the PS I knew was over. The only one left of the old guard is Shu Yoshida...and he's been reduced to a corner office role and a Twitter feed is his only contact with the public. Kodera moved to Now.

So a lot of the stuff we associate with PS. Gravity Rush, etc is from the old management structure. Ryan's been very clearly following the Sony Pictures blueprint and fairly vocal about that. That'll please the Naughty Dog=Sony crowd to no end. But I think a lot of those "very Playstation" games are going to vanish. Most of that came through Japan Studio, which he's already said he's scaling down. I've said it before, but Ryan is Sony's own Don Matrick. We'll see by PS6 launch the damage he's doing. And brace yourself for all those sequels. Games are expensive to make dontchaknow. My fear is that Sony's waning will coincide with Xbox's waxing and we'll end up with a reverse of the PS4/X1 era in the PS6/Series Z era.

Very interested to see what MS does with Japan though. Sony has coasted on a lot of "dev loyalty" in Japan. But Ryan has gone out of his way to flip off Japanese devs. He did that half hearted "the homeland is important to us (not really)" speech in teleprompter-Japanese last week. He's feeling the heat, but only slightly feigning concern. Meanwhile Phil's beating down their doors to hand them invitations (and probably cash.)

Oh I recognize Hollow Knight's quality. But it's still too "small" to fill that "A/AA" middle ground we're looking for. It's still very much a "small" game. Well made, but "small." We need something that goes beyond 2D sidescroller metroidvania to fill that space. Yeah, Ori's in that space too, though Ori does aim somewhat higher. That said, Hollow Knight is a platformer for Soulsborne fans and wears it on its sleeve. shudder

as long as you can ADS on all weapons i'll be happy

@KelticDevil

Niche? Dark Souls 1 has sold over 10 million copies.

@Dezzy

Demon’s Souls hasn’t.

@KelticDevil @Dezzy Soulsborne is niche by nature. The bulk of the gaming public isn't going to really go for an intentionally brutally difficult game that all but the best players will just see "you died" over and over and over, with minimal story or sense of progression. It's a very niche gameplay formula. The sales are OK, 27m for DS series over years, but that's a lot of deep discount sales, and a lot of that is fueled by internet hype. I imagine there's a lot of players like me that are otherwise core gamers, keep buying the games, at least on sales, to keep trying to understand why they're so loved by some, but play basically none of them. For some reason in Sony circles it's the sacred cow, but it's not really a Sony specific conversation outside Demon's Souls. I have most of the From games, and the only one I have on PS is Bloodborne, only because I got it free on PS+. I haven't bought Demon's Souls (any version), but I'll probably get it on a sale if it hits a decent price after the inevitable post-core-launch whales are expended. I have DS1 on Switch, 2 and 3 on XB, and for some unknown reason I actually paid full price for Sekiro on XB at launch....I'm a sucker for feudal Japan. I played like up to the first boss and that was that. I think the hype generates a lot of sales to people that end up not playing the games.

Dark Souls 1, in particular, I just ugly, dated, and clunky. And not in a good Monster Hunter sort of way. I get that it has a great level design, but that can't save the rest of the game if you're not the niche that just really digs the combat.

@themightyant It sounds like you're going to love Hitman, for sure! Styx is cool (have them all, haven't gone back to them, reminds me a bit of old school Thief.) I loved the first Assassn's Creed when it was all about stealth. I love Splinter Cell in concept, but something about the stealthing in that series gets frustrating. Deus Ex (original and modern trilogy duo (c'mon Squeenix, where's 3?!)) I play all stealth (the way it's meant to be played, darnit!), MGS stealth, like Splinter Cell can frustrate more than thrill at times for some reason. But yeah, as a stealth fan that likes some depth to stealth, I think you're in for quite a treat with Hitman. Other stealth games use stealth as a mechanic. In Hitman it's the entire game. Also has save-anywhere which can take the frustration out of particularly frustrating setups and work around glitches without frustrating. 3's coming out soon, and I haven't decided on platform yet. XB was obvious, but supposedly it supports full PSVR on PS (albeit the PS4 version only of course) - and that sounds too cool to pass up, even if I hate setting up the rig (and don't have my USB adapter yet.)

Heh, if Ryan isn't Matrick the sequel, he's at least Bobby Kotick or Larry Probst the sequel. Not much of an upgrade. Matrick's a special kind of stupid, but Ryan is "conventional Western media executive like you see at the other major AAAs" with less than zero pulse on the actual games industry, market, or community and a focus on numbers-driven business and sales. Worse, an almost active aggression toward the enthusiast market with a "we have the data that proves the hobby gamers don't meaningfully factor into our figures, and we can perform better just going over their head, flipping them off and focusing on the uninformed mass market" mentality. I'm sure Sony Business loves his way of doing things. And I'm sure the uninformed mass market will generate tons of revenue on the most mass-market oriented business decisions. Works for EA and 2K, after all. But it means he's actively positioning PS, more and more, at a market that isn't us. It's a hard u-turn from the Japan-centric leadership of the past. And those cool, arguably niche, games that mostly came from Japan like Gravity Rush, Knack (ok, that was Cerny but brought up through Japan Studio), even SoTC are mostly a thing of the past. It's not speculation, he recently said outright they're scaling back Japan studio and their other Japan operations. It's the big AAA cinematic blockbusters he sees as revenue generators, and that's where the money will go. MediEvil didn't have big sell numbers, and in Ryan-speak that means it gets axed for the next China-friendly mass market smash hit.

@NEStalgia

I completely agree.

So i just came across the part where Joseph mentioned playing through the full campaign and loving it. Really sounds like the "game" is done and now they are just making it look good. He also said it was what he and the original team wanted for Halo to be back in 2000, I'll take his approval as a good sign. So now they have a year to doll it up and work out bugs so it doesn't launch like everything else in the past 2-3 months....unfinished.

@Krzzystuff I imagine the story part of the campaign is long since finished, but beyond the visuals, bugs, and performance, I also imagine multiplayer was barely close to complete, so the campaign has to be held back for multiplayer to launch with it in a year rather than releasing two halves of a game a year apart. Plus even if the story is complete, there's probably a lot of "empty open world" in the single player that will continue being populated, tuned, etc. over the year so it's not just an empty pointless world that links together story missions.