Halo Infinite's First Esports Event Has Been 'Locked In'

Wanna know what else was locked in? Releasing last holiday.

At this point I honestly wouldn't mind seeing another delay just for developers to get the memo.

But we all know that wouldn't happen.

@InterceptorAlpha you mean they should have seen a global pandemic had wfh development all set for that?

You should look up how much this has hurt the games industry some projects are delayed years. Think halo and alot of others we know about were already well into development.
To get battlefield out this year they had to scrap/pause the nfs title expected to hit this year to just try and help the development
Some developers were saying things that would take 5-,10 mintue to fix by sending files in the office now take hours to send back and forth

Long time Halo fan. No interest in e-sports Halo at all. Actively puts me off the game.

@Terrin Unfortunately you comment doesn't contain anything of substance to reply to directly. You made an incorrect assumption about my statement and it was all down hill from there.

You seem to be forgetting that they said the game was ready for release at this holiday, well after things had been influenced. And they were going to release it. It wasn't until fans complained about it that anything was done.

From their perspective they had a full game to release, pandemic or not. They repeatedly said they were ready. Then finally, after they were called out, they delayed it. Then back pedaled and stated the pandemic did actually have part to do with the delay.

So the originally lied, it was affected, and only delayed it after being called out. Or they told the truth originally, and used a very serious pandemic as a scapegoat for delaying their game.

So maybe before you start making wildly incorrect assumptions, step down from your high horse for a minute. You might learn something.

@Benjamin Why does the existence of a competitive scene put you off?

@InterceptorAlpha I am not gonna sit here arguging with you but if you need some information on a recent podcast 2 jez even heard that internally they planned to delay halo before the showcase.
Also phil told Ryan from ign in a interview back in April 2020 that covid was making game development more challenging and ryan asked if halo could be delayed.he said there was always a possiblity of this but it wouldn't delay the series x launch as that is set.

Game development is really messy and most projects look way worse then that demo until finished.
Why you see amazing game play reveals are normally pieces of vertical slices or what they hope projects look like. And when titles come out they don't look nearly as good.
Sure by the showcase I agree they should have state the delay. But there is way to many variables to say because fans call them out they delayed it. If that was the case right now sony would be giving mlb also in ps plus as fans are freaking out about that on twitter as well

@Carck I don't think they're mutually exclusive. Besides, if they separate comp and "normie" modes, which happens a lot these days, you can literally have both.

@Carck I feel like esports is becoming the Nurburgring of gaming where they are tuned for that very small experience rather than the majority who'll just play (or drive) normally

@Zochmenos 1. The marketing of that scene, in the same way an annoying ad-campaign might put one off. 2. Potential gameplay built for the e-sports scene like Halo 5’s arena modes, call-outs and weapon waypoints.

@Carck @Benjamin

Wanting a game you like (and its marketing?) catered exclusively to your tastes makes enough sense, I suppose, but given that people who prefer the competitive scene might want the same, I think a split player base is a better end than ignoring one side entirely.

(PS: Halo 5's bad ideas are just bad ideas, but the CPU call-ous and weapon waypoints are more for casuals and lone-wolves than actual comp. players.)

@Carck @Benjamin

One more thing...

Fighting games have tried to find the perfect competive-casual balance for years...some more successfully than others. It isn't a zero sum game and you CAN hit a fantastic median.

@Carck

They are only in the obvious "vs" sense. Early fighting games weren't developed with competition in mind and often featured characters and move sets that dominated others. This situation improved as players demanded a more competitively balanced cast and mechanics.

Halo's competitive base is probably fairly modest if we're talking about true skill, but the number of players who pursue a rank (regardless of outcome) or whom actually try and win each game and aren't primarly looking for laughs/memes is probably quite large. These guys shouldn't dictate ALL development choices but their existence (and loud voices) can help make weapons balanced, maps more fluid, spawn point distribution fair, etc.

I get not wanting comp. (or pro) players to get lopsided influence (even they don't know what will work best necessarily) but I wouldn't fret about them getting attention from MS. It will probably benefit us all in the long run.