343 Industries needs to carefully prepare for the future

Jan 24, 2015 08:43 GMT  ·  By

The beta stage of Halo 5: Guardians is now done, and with the developers at 343 Industries making it clear that they have no plans for another testing period, this means that fans of the series now need to dig deep into their patience reserves and wait for the shooter to launch in the autumn months of this year.

As they do so, they will certainly continue to talk and argue about the new mechanics for the multiplayer side of the title, which were first shown in action in the beta, and they will also seek to influence the studio as much as possible into making changes.

When the beta for Halo 5: Guardians went live, most of the initial reactions were that the concepts that 343 Industries is using to make sure that the game is in line with other modern shooters, including the sprinting option, are not needed and make the game too fast and too focused on movement rather than on careful positioning and shooting.

Since then, the talk on the official forums has become more balanced, but the negative thread names still dominate over the positive ones, even if there are plenty of testers, even long-time fans, who say that the new title managed to capture the essence of the series and feel modern at the same time.

Who should developers listen to?

Traditionally development teams tend to ignore popular reactions to their ideas and focus on delivering a game experience that is as solid as possible.

But the delay and re-evaluation of the core ideas of Battlefield: Hardline has made other studios more open to the reactions of the most hardcore of fans.

343 Industries has already said that it was using feedback and data gathered during the Halo 5: Guardians beta to decide how it would try and change the title before launch.

The problem with reactions coming from gamer is that it’s hard to decide which ones are worth taking into account and which simply represent rants.

At the same time those who post on blogs or on forums tend to represent a minority of those playing and even tracked data is hard to interpret without some input from gamers.

Halo 5: Guardians is pretty much guaranteed to be one of the biggest launches of the year, but silent fans should consider speaking up as soon as possible about the aspects of the title they love, preferably on the official forums.

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