Guest Editorial: We’re Right On Schedule for New Gen Halo!

I remember a year ago, when it was the Xbox One itself that was what so many of us were waiting for. Now of course for so many of us it’s the Master Chief collection this time around that’s having us wait. I truly believe were all in a better place now. Even though a lot of us, including me, wished a Halo title would have been available at the same time as Xbone launch (Don’t count Spartan Assault as a real Halo title, it’s another genre game based on Halo). Hindsight allows us to say it’s a good thing they weren’t out at the same time. Cue this week’s blog.

Now last year, of course, was the whole infamous Microsoft unveiling of the Xbone: no disk, no resale, sharing games in a unique way and the yadda yadda that caused many a hair to either turn grey, fall out or perhaps even turn grey and THEN fall out. Personally it’s out there that I liked alot of the proposed original vision of the console, but in the end of course they retracted so much. Honestly, that is not what I wanted to discuss here now though.

Face it, so many of us Halo nuts last year, prior to the Xbone launch, thought one thing: “the next Halo will be new gen exclusive, so yeah… I will own it one day!” It was the whole soap opera of the next gen saga that had me worried, like so many others. I just wanted Halo on the next gen.

Personally, I took the Xbone plunge in March of this year. Launch day for Titanfall was launch day for next gen in my home. I figured a lot of the bugs were being worked out on the console. There was no glaring defect like the RROD, and I wanted to get used to the new hotness. Even in the 5 months since I got the console, the monthly updates have brought it into a very stable machine that has become the home entertainment system Microsoft told me I needed when I said I didn’t and now I would be hard pressed not to have!

The Master Chief Collection is a massive injection of Halo to the next gen, if you’re on this page reading this, you’re a fan of Podtacular, and you know what it brings to the table! My point is that I believe it’s a good thing that we get MCC a year after the Xbone launch.

The whole console launch saga is over; we are familiar with the console. Microsoft has worked out what are normal bumps in the road with a new console launch. Updates that have taken used feedback into account have been implemented. The time is simply perfect for Halo now on next gen.

Launching the Xbone with a real Halo title last year would have been a potential negative hit against the game. Put simply, any knock in the Xbone’s workings that would cause say, serious issues with servers and the console itself, would reflect bad on the game. Imagine a week with no online multiplayer because of the console’s shortcoming on launch would kill the momentum leading to Halo 5 amongst other things. It could kill the community being interpreted that Halo on next gen was a failure for reasons not tied to the actual game itself.

While I don’t give carte blanche to everyone, I tend to accept professionals as knowing what they do well. I assume a doctor in neurology would know about the brain better than I do, that a lawyer would know how to best represent me in a court of law, and yes, that a company that makes video game consoles would understand the dynamics of launching a console. Like with any endeavor, you must make a plan from initial sketches and vision to the final update in the life cycle of a console 10 years after the fact. It’s a road that has bumps you didn’t foresee and most of you did and were ready to avoid or react to best way possible. Professionals are doing what they do because that’s what they are professionals in.

The brains behind Microsoft and 343 are professionals that do their job better than most you and me would do. (Even with my stint doing graphics in PC gaming that I did so well at.. I don’t do it anymore! Lol!) You could also look at us the rabid, crazed Halo fans doing our jobs by wanting, thinking out loud, applauding, begging and sure, even griping and lamenting about the future of Halo. The circle of gaming life!

Now was Microsoft playing it safe to have Halo hit Xbone a year later after launch? Probably not, as MCC wasn’t ready, but really, I think it’s a good thing it has worked out that way!

You can find out more about Gagnon 30 on Twitter (@Gagnon30) and on Facebook (Ramblings From The Eating Bed)