For the first time ever, Grifball was included as a gametype on the disc. Literally millions of people could play it on launch day without needing to seek out and download a special gametype and court. We saw an explosive growth in our leagues because of this, from 60 teams in our last Reach season to more than 400 teams in our first Halo 4 season. Our first Halo 4 season even had twice as many teams as our best Halo 3 season. Many of these players never or rarely played Grifball in Halo 3 and Reach, but tried it out because it was included on the disc.

: What "barrel roll" move?

This.

Funny story: We submitted "Grifball Dash" (The one with sprint and evade) to Bungie for inclusion in the Grifball playlist in Reach, but they refused to put it in because of this bug. They never patched it. But the gametype was so popular in the Grifball community that we had to create a special Dash league.

When 343 took over the Reach playlists, we asked them to put Dash in. Although they knew about the barrel roll, they agreed to put it in because that's what the community wanted.

: I really disagree, like I indicated above, I think they failed to make
: Assault fully work and salvaged the parts required for Grifball.

Grifball was created to be Grifball. Kevin Franklin specifically set out to create Grifball in Halo 4 and used the oddball assets to do it (with many modifications for capture plates, Grif traits, etc). They brought in Grifball community members early in the process to get their feedback.

: I seem to remember Bungie getting input from Grifball community people when
: they were finishing Reach.

Ehh, not really. They included an area in Forge World that could serve as a court (much like 343 did in Halo 4). Grifball wasn't officially confirmed for Reach until PAX 2010, a couple weeks before launch. But, like I said, Grifball wasn't as big a deal in 2010 as it was in 2012, after it got a permanent playlist in Reach, which is another great thing Bungie did for us.