Will Halo be enough for the next Xbox?

This is NOT a console bashing thread, so no dumb fanboy comments please.

First off let me make it clear that I know there are plenty of great games for the Xbox, both exclusive and multiplat. However it is well known that MS is lacking in IP's, and most of their success has been in Halo. So the question is, do you expect this trend to continue next gen and do you think that Halo is enough?

I know Halo is very popular but eventually things run out of steam, and Halo 4 isn't as popular online as past installments to the series. Personally I believe MS has other IP's in the works, but not everyone agrees.

What do you think?

Halo won't even be close to enough. I'd say they have new IPs in the works, but you never know.

Microsoft has at least four new unannounced IPs.

I say it will depend on if Sony is going to drop the ball early on again which is unlikely. All the rumors points towards very similar hardware for both consoles so that's going to be one less problems for developers and they can't be stupid enough to charge 100$ more than Microsoft will be asking.

If that's the case Microsoft got it's work cut out for it. They're neck and neck now despite their one year head start which really was a 3 year head start when you consider the abysmal sales of the PS3 before the slim and the shoddy ports of multiplatform games while third parties were still trying to figure out the Cell.

Did Halo 4 even come close to the success and position and popularity of Halo 3?

They've opened another studio for the sole purpose of creating IP's on the scale of Halo. Whatever that means.

Halo will be the only game on the Durango. All other games being developed must now be renamed "Halo." Including multiplatform games.

It'll be a mystery box of Halo. 100% Halo, but you never know what game is inside. Spoilers: It's Halo.

Dude, if a console can play both the newest Halo, Call of Duty and Madden, odds are it'll be pretty popular, because that's all it needs. Microsoft has learned this over time. It pushed really unique IP's at the start of last gen (Kameo, Banjo Kazooie, etc) but it did not pay off for them. So ultimately they stripped away the fat and pandered to the Wii audience while also barely keeping the hardcore game afloat with its timed exclusive DLC's and whatnot. Kinect has been a huge success for the them, so whether or not they'll try to rock the boat with that success by doing some radical things before they bleed it dry remains to be seen.

@morbid_coffee: I think that sounds alright.

No, they need new IPs.

Halo 2 Anniversary on next Xbox also halo 5

I was going to make a silly joke about new games in old franchises from the 360, but then I thought up "Trials HD CE DX" and now I really want that game to be real.

I don't have any solid numbers but I really doubt it. Halo 3 had three and four hundred thousand players online at any given time for a while, if I remember correctly; also if I remember correctly, it floated around 200,000 until Reach came out. After Reach launched, it stayed at pretty good numbers but I don't ever remember seeing it anywhere near the same heights of 3. I barely played 4 online, so I don't know for certain, but if that's any indication...

Anyway, Halo floated the original Xbox, along with KOTOR and a handful of other exclusives. The 360 got to first place simply by virtue of being the first next-generation console to wow people with HD graphics. I remember seeing tons of people looking at that Call of Duty 2 demo that was all over the place for a long time, and people wanted it. And they got it. And then they played online with their friends, and their friend didn't get PS3's, so they didn't migrate to PS3's. I don't think Halo was the reason for the 360's success anywhere near as much as it was the reason for the first Xbox's success, and if I were a betting man, I would say that the next Xbox will have to rely on Halo even less so.

Oh I am sure the next Xbox will be successful, I think they all will be. The only thing is that I personally want more than Halo from the Xbox brand, I am personally not a very big Halo fan so I am hoping for some new IP's with the next Xbox. There are rumors that they are working on some new one's, which I feel they need to because as popular as Halo was it's just not what it used to be.

As for Kinect, I expect the next Xbox to have that feature. Which is not a bad thing to me, I don't understand why people on the internet act like motion gaming is from the devil, it's not THAT bad and it can be fun sometimes. But by no means should it be the focus, also the people that were mostly interested in the Wii were just trend people. The fad has passed so those dance type games won't be the focus again.

@officegamer: Halo 4 sold very well and continues to perform well as one of the most played games on XBL. I doubt Halo would be enough to get people to buy the new console though, it definitely doesn't have the same pulling power as it did in the early Xbox days.

But they do seem to be putting the effort into bringing out more new IP's, we know they're developing at least 4 for launch, which is great. Halo/Gears/Forza isn't going to be enough to sell people on a new system, so it'll be interesting to see what they pull out.

One game is probably never enough to justify the existence of a system. Halo is a great FPS and there will probably always be Halo. Gears of War was a new IP this gen that really defined the xbox 360 and was the game that sold me and probably a ton of other people on getting an Xbox. If Rare is working on an actually game like a proper Banjo-Threeie or just something creative and fun, that would be a huge push for me to get that.

One other thing to look at is while Xbox may not have as many first party games (Halo, Gears, Forza) they have a higher quality then most of the Playstation first party games (Killzone, Resistance, Uncharted, Gran Turismo). The Xbox ones outsell the sony games hands down, regardless of Uncharted 2 being a goty contender of 2009.

Bash it all you will, but Gears of War was a massive sucess that helped the 360 along with Halo. I sort of see Gears of War 1 as the 360s Halo CE (except not a launch title). I'm pretty sure MS is working on at least a couple new IP's and whatever sticks will see a couple of sequels during the lifetime of the next xbox. Much like Halo and Gears of War.

Another thing that might come up is the "next big third party game". Whichever console launches first and has the big new multiplatform game (ex. Call of Duty 2 in 2005) might end up with the larger player base because they had the experience first on x console instead of the other. If your mind is blown by pretty graphics or whatever you'll get the console and recommend it to your friends.

Also, knowing the existing relationship between the xbox and Call of Duty (having the DLC first every time) I'm sure MS is doing whatever they can to get that Call of Duty money to continue onto the next generation.

So in short, MS (and this applies to Sony as well) has to hit 4 things to get players on board:

• Get that new IP out there and make it a thing
• Launch first with the big, good looking, multiplatform game
• Get that Call of Duty playerbase (it's still the biggest out there at the moment)
• Continue the old IP's that people know and love

These aren't absolutes, because there's a million things out there about the consoles that can change or make these points moot. I'm no analyst, but at least for me those are the things that seem to matter.

Having IPs may not really matter that much.

Just the fact that Microsoft won the traditional noncasual gamer this generation may prove to be pivotal, now that everyone has their primary friend list and achievements on a Microsoft console. That wasn't really a consideration before these consoles. Sony has more exclusives on the PS3, but they were behind enough in friend list/online connectivity stuff and achievements that Microsoft kinda has that locked up. And so many games are multiplatform that "friend list/online connectivity stuff and achievements" plus all the other "service" stuff may largely be the differentiator between consoles.

Unless Microsoft pulls a 599 US dollars, they should be able to hold onto the lead. Sony seemed to end this generation still kinda behind in figuring out their online offerings that, at best, they might be able to play HUGE amounts of catchup and be on par with Microsoft with the PS4. Even in that best case scenario, that will only bring Sony and Microsoft closer to parity, but being your rival's equal isn't enough to allow Sony to actually pull ahead in market share.

But hey, I'm making a huge amount of assumptions.

Personally I think MS no investing on new IPs was a mistake, they got filled with kinect dollars and invest all their eggs in that lame kinect crap. However, I'm no business analyst and they keep saying exclusives don't matter.

I gotta say as a costumer exclusives still matter to me.

To be fair, Xbox has been more about Halo for some time. stuff like Gears, Forza and Fable are respectable first party titles.

However, I miss the days of the original Xbox, when Microsoft put out a ton of new IPs. Not all of them were good, but at least it was a bunch of new stuff.

Where's my new Mech Assault?!

Brute Force 2 coming in 2015.

i can only speak for myself- but i'll say this much:

it's not enough for me. going into this next gen i'm leaning towards sony- but we'll see how things shake out.

@breadfan: I liked Brute Force.

No, especially considering the piss poor job they did with Halo 4 and the rush to send out surveys and please anyone who bitches about it online.

I'll say this. ~ Halo 5 is gonna have to grow a nut-n-a-half to compete against Destiny. Uhf...

No, they need to launch with really huge titles that people aren't going to be tired of already (because Halo 4 just came out, that is). For example, GTA V would help a lot. Oh wait, that's for the current generation, even though it's a month or two before the console will be out. Well, at least there is that crazy Bungie "Destiny" thing, which is going to be a ten year game. Oh wait, that's for the current generation, even though it'll be out at the end of the year and is claimed to be a game aimed at lasting until almost 2024. Um. Well, I'm sure they'll have something. Obviously they'll have COD, but that'll be developed for the current generation (but available on both, I'm sure). If they released MW4 and said "only available on the new Xbox", that alone would likely sell five million systems the first month.

That's just your opinion. I find PS3 exclusives tend to be better quality and they seem to sell just fine. Not sure why you mentioned sales though.

No but Call of Duty will be.

Halo 4 just didn't do it for me partly because I'm burnt out from the series so no Halo will not be enough but Fallout 4 will definitely have my attention. My question is why isn't Microsoft with its vast amount of wealth building up a strong catalog of first party studios?