: This is rather negative to say but, I was thinking last evening, after
: several hours playing ODST Firefight on Lost Platoon, that Microsoft
: should have given Halo back to Bungie as a thank you for the game
: franchise making them trainloads of money. I think that Halo needs to rest
: for a few years. I believe 343 and has no idea what to do with this
: franchise. Besides that, Halo appears to be just a vehicle used to launch
: low quality, inexpensive Halo related throw-away content. I would like to
: see future Halo games just get back to the basics. The Gears of War games
: stuck to the basics throughout all the games and they were very successful
: and I still play them regularly.

: Halo 4 sit's in a drawer gathering dust unless my wife wants to play it from
: time to time. She likes to assassinate the Promethean
: whatever-they-are-Knights. So I guess it serves some purpose, but just not
: for me.

: Hell, give Halo back to Bungie and let the small group that created ODST
: create the next Halo game. I love ODST and Firefight. Great writing,
: outstanding music and an enjoyable story with the Rookie and his
: squadmates. New Mombasa streets would have been better for me if Bungie
: added more enemies, and removing the migraine inducing
: Red-screen-o-pointless in Firefight would have been great too. But I still
: play it and I always have fun in ODST.

It would be nice if MS sold Halo back to Bungie who would then take the series multiplatform, but it's their most important and lucrative IP by far, so it won't happen. The only reason I'm even considering getting an XBO is because Halo is still exclusive to the Xbox brand. We don't know what Epic is planning with Gears of War. Since they're the actual franchise owners, they could choose to keep it exclusive to Xbox or take it multiplatform, and that's assuming they actually plan on making any more Gears games. Dead Rising 3 and Ryse don't excite or interest me in the least. I'm not big enough fan of racing games for Forza 5 to sway me. So for now, Halo is the only exclusive I care about, and even then I have doubts about 343I's ability to do the series justice. I'm willing to give them one more chance, but they really need to impress with Halo 5 if I'm going to fork about $560 just to play it. I'm hoping they learned from their mistakes and make a title that truly lives up to the legacy that Bungie left them with.