: I watched the campaign reveal and came away feeling basically nothing.
: Nothing got me excited but by the same token, nothing really upset or
: disappointed me. I thought about why that might be and the obvious
: explanation came up first: it's been a long time since the franchise
: offered me anything compelling and I've become apathetic/disinterested.

: But that's not the whole story. There is something else at play, and it
: explains both my personal apathy and so much that was shown in the
: trailer: Halo has gone from being a video game franchise with toys to
: being a toy franchise with video games.

: This metamorphosis was well underway by the time of Halo 4 but it's taken a
: huge step with H:I

: Point 1: The Minecraft Aesthetic

:

: A lot of people see the flat polygons and make jokes about "is this
: next-gen??" as though a Triple-A developer forgot how to do graphics.
: No, it's intentional: the blocky aesthetic will work very nicely with toys
: and other plastic playsets.

: Point 2: The Open World, Under Construction

: This point is less obvious but I feel is still worth considering. Think back
: to when you were playing with GI Joe or other action figures as a kid. The
: whole narrative and setup of the characters and structures was an ad-hoc,
: random composition. You get out the Command Tower and decide to place a
: couple of Gun Turrets and a Wall to prevent your sister's Rainbow Brite
: Army from taking the nearby village, slaughtering thousands. And there's a
: submarine base, why not.

: This concept works better, more naturally, if the source video game behaves
: like this from the start. You can obviously have toys of characters,
: vehicles, and structures from a more linear and narratively driven game,
: but things are more in harmony if the game is already setup in an open
: world format. And even better, it appears from the media we've seen that
: the ring itself is constantly under construction, where its layout is
: constantly changing.

: Point 3: The Big Bad

: Characters sell toys. Important characters sell more. Both the Didact and Pvt
: Chips Dubbo are characters in the Halo franchise, but one of them will
: sell a lot more toys than the other. This should be in your mind when the
: Big Bad Brute is front and center in the marketing. Halo 1 technically had
: a main villain, but it was a gradual revelation (343GS didn't appear until
: halfway in) aided by a plot twist. The game's story was still more about
: your desperate attempts to survive in an unknown world: part fact-finding,
: part shooting, and part surviving.

: Halo 2 had the Prophets, Gravemind, and Tartarus. But again, these enemies
: were revealed organically as the story unfolded.

: Halo Infinite puts the Big Bad front and center. This is not "helpful
: floating orb on mysterious ring eventually turns out to be a very big
: threat." This is He-Man and Skeletor, Lion-O and Mumra, red panda
: and pumpkin . It's cheesy and low-effort but it's going to sell action
: figures from Day 0.

: Point 4: That Stupid 117 Decal

:

: This is my weakest point but it bugs me enough to mention it. I'm sure you
: can think of three or four explanations for why "117" should be
: awkwardly slapped on his breast but it sure does feel like it's there
: mostly to allow for easy identification during the War of Rainbowland
: Aggression.

: Anyway. This is not a "I HATE GAME" post, since again I'm mostly
: feeling apathetic. But I thought I'd share my thoughts here in case you
: felt the same way and were wondering why. Rather than being a
: disappointing entry in the franchise as you knew it, it's a competent
: entry in some other franchise which doesn't interest you.

: Side note: I'm thinking about getting a weekly MCC night going between now
: and H:I launch. 343 has done very well to make the PC offering playable.
: I'm leaning towards Thursday or Sunday nights but you can chime in with
: your thoughts.

If toys were the overarching goal, they'd never have cancelled the Halo Mega Bloks prototype.