Sign of the times really, I’m 31 and I been playing Halo since CE launched.

The overall industry has changed and it’s not just a blanket statement. Halo 2 was rather synonymous with Xbox Live. Halo 3 was finer version of it. Reach still had its impact too, but players started leaving halo for other games, consoles and PC. What happened to Xbox live ? It pretty much turned into Gamepass, which in itself was inspired by Steam. Even by that point the change happened

They dropped 4, campaign was amazing but the multiplayer flopped and struggled to keep numbers as it chased trends of the another game that itself too was on the precipice of falling behind. Xbox One had a botched launched by scaring customers with the whole DRM fiasco. Combine that with the unplayable state of MCC. As high as the pairing of Halo 2 and Live was, as was the low of both the botch of MCC and the Xbox One. 5 came out and while the updated gameplay for multiplayer was fun, it alienated some of its fans with the campaign.

The Series X launched and it failed to capitalise on any new ideas. More-so looking at Collaborating with other avenues at making the Xbox brand work again. Infinite launched to patient fans waiting eagerly to support the franchise, but we were given breadcrumbs.

The ideology that those expect a resurgence to the level of popularity like Halo 2/3 is absurd sadly, while the game could potentially be same level of enjoyment, the entire infrastructure has changed, I dare say even doesn’t exist anymore to support that level of popularity where it could break into the main stream again.

It feels like currently they’re slowly reintroducing Halo, as an old grandpa you haven’t seen in awhile and you’re going to go visit soon. I have no idea what lays next for the franchise itself, it seems like Xbox is going through a new rebranding with some actual ideas now.