: Apparently, it's all but confirmed that, according to the NPD, Halo 5 sold
: less than one million copies in the U.S. in October. At least that's the
: word over at GAF. Considering that Halo 5 showed a big drop-off as well
: in the UK , it's looking increasingly like the same situation is playing
: out here in the U.S. Plus there's this:

: If true, that is a massive drop-off. Halo 2, 3, Reach, and 4 all sold well
: over 3 million copies on launch month in the U.S. according to the NPD.
: Even using high-end percentages for early digital sales for retail-release
: games (maybe 15-20%; the average for the whole U.S. market sans bundled
: games was slightly over 5% last year) and adding bundles to the mix (the
: XBO sold 305k in October based on MS PR, and it's obvious not all of those
: are going to be H5 bundles) that isn't going to make a difference. Hell,
: even the fact that Halo 5 had fewer days in which to sell than the others
: isn't going to make that huge of a difference, as based on past PR the
: sales in launch month are very front-loaded. For example, of the 3.3
: million copies Halo 3 sold in the U.S. in September 2007, 2.5 million were
: sold in the first 24 hours. Best-case scenario, between physical,
: standalone digital, and bundled copies, we're talking maybe 1.4 million
: copies maximum, which is still less than the 1.52 million that ODST sold
: in September 2009.

: While it could have good legs and still get some very good lifetime sales
: (meaning it's too early to call it a flop), if it really did sell under a
: million on launch month that is not a good start. I was suspicious of that
: shining PR statement bragging about "$400 million in revenue"
: also including hardware and I was worried we might see a drop-off from
: previous Halo games, but I wasn't expecting this. But right now unless
: either A) some wires got crosses regarding the sales estimates or B) Halo
: 5 had some sort of abnormally massive record-setting percentage of its
: sales from digital (like 70+% including bundles) it seems to be the case
: that it had the worst launch of any main series Halo game in the U.S.

: I only wonder what could have caused a series with historically stable launch
: performances to suddenly drop off a cliff like this. The MCC's launch woes
: persisting for several months, maybe? Not enough Master Chief levels?
: Simple franchise fatigue? Fans revolting against 343i and/or just sticking
: with Bungie by switching to Destiny? People waiting for Black Friday? Or
: maybe it's the lack of split-screen? I know two of my friends, dedicated
: Halo players both, were turned off by lack of split-screen and haven't
: bought H5 yet.

: While Halo 5 is lacking in content at the moment and the loss of split-screen
: is a bummer, it still had a better campaign than Halo 4, its MP is better
: balanced, and Warzone can be a lot of fun. I would have thought it would
: do better than this.

I can only tell you what my group of friends both online and offline think. But here is my age ranges problem (we were all 12 or 13 when H1 came out)

1. Lackluster campaign: None of my friends have any desire to replay it, and we all agree its the first campaign we were bored playing through. It's the first Halo campaign that didn't have me playing it start to finish since H2 in a single sitting. There are many reasons why campaign is not good, but in the end no one I know wants to replay it.

2. Limited maps and game modes for arena. How many times do I want to play the same 4 gamemodes, on around 6 maps? Worse the maps nearly all play the same, there is little to no variance in them. Where is doubles? where is Multiteam? Where is social slayer? While H4's slayer may have been a flop I played more objective in H4 than any other game.

3. Warzone is mindless. Sorry, weapon variants, sporadic and unfun AI to fight along with the tedious REQ card system makes me not want to touch it.

4. We are old. Long gone are the days where all my friends who have been playing online since H2 can all come home from school or college and sit down and enjoy Xbox. We all have lives and responsibilities and it's hard to get the old gang together again, or even time to play constantly period. The franchise is old and the people who appreciate it, aren't the ones who have the time so much to play anymore. 13 year old little Jimmy doesn't want a game like the Halo we want, and trying to appeal to everyone is Halo's problem.

5. The convergence effect. I look at 343 Halo like I do MS's approach to windows. It has to appeal to everyone. Take the whole surface line. They are decent to use as laptops, they are decent to use as tablets. But they aren't the best laptops and they aren't the best tablets. The compromise of trying to appeal to so many people leaves no one satisfied. When I was at PAX I was showing the SPV3 project to a 343 employee, and talking to him all about what we've done with AI in Halo to make it more complex, less predictable and requiring the player to think. His response was "well thats cool, but that's not really what people seem to want these days in a game." To me that's insane. But maybe thats why my biggest complaint in why I can't enjoy H5 campaign is because of the enemies and the AI. 343 seems to have recognized that one shoe does not fit all, with Warzone and Arena. I think Arena is awesome and just wish more work was put into the maps and diversity in it. But Arena appeals to the classic players, Warzone to the casual and a more contemporary crowd. I mean I'd buy a classic smart halo campaign that tries to be as much like H1/H3 as possible, and I'd also be highly interested in seeing a new take of a campaign modeled after COD or Gears or even Destiny set in the Halo Universe. But stop taking what I love about Halo out of Halo to appeal to people who don't like Halo.