14 DAY TRIAL // This week, the development team at 343 Industries and publisher Microsoft have delivered more information about Halo 5: Guardians and the core experiences that it will offer, including the fact that the single-player campaign can be played cooperatively by no less than four players, working as a team to overcome challenges.
When the reveal for the new feature was delivered, the two companies surprised a lot of fans by saying that they would allow access to all those who have a basic Silver account for Xbox Live, the kind that does not require a monthly payment.
About 24 hours after the reveal, just as the Halo fan community was seeing Microsoft in a more positive light, the publisher delivered a short and relatively detail-free announcement in which it explained that a communication problem meant that gamers were misled.
Actually, all those who are interested in playing the cooperative campaign in Halo 5: Guardians will have to pay for a Gold level account for Xbox Live.
A 14-day trial is included in the game package to give players a look at the core mechanics when they first pick their copy up after October 27.
Xbox Live Gold is a relic of the past of the video game industry
The initial announcement that Silver was enough and the subsequent revelation that Gold would actually be required to play cooperatively in Halo 5: Guardians might have been an honest mistake or a last-minute change of mind coming from management.
Regardless, it only shows that Microsoft is not yet ready to abandon the subscription associated with multiplayer gaming on the Xbox One and the 360, which is a pity for gaming in general.
The policy is a relic of an era when home consoles could still claim that they were offering an experience superior to the PC and when gamers were willing to pay for the privilege of stable servers and other services.
But Halo 5: Guardians is arriving after the launch of Windows 10, and even Microsoft has acknowledged that gaming on the PC has become an important market and that it needs to have a strong presence on the platform.
It's easy for those who use an Xbox One to see that they are paying for a service that other companies are offering for free, and it will be even easier for them to judge the company based on the statements it has made about Silver and coop play.
Microsoft needs to show good faith
Halo 5: Guardians is such a big release for the company and for the Xbox One that it would make the perfect test bed for a new approach, one which puts the players first and aims to give them as many experiences as possible for free.
Microsoft should drop the requirement for Xbox Live Gold and make it clear that the cooperative campaign will be offered with no extra costs to all those who try it out.
The company should also hold more regular weekend events during which the core multiplayer modes should be offered to all those who purchase Halo 5: Guardians.
Modern video games need a dedicated and satisfied audience to be appealing in the long term, and making its big new Master Chief-based experience cheaper and easier to get into would be a public relations coup for Microsoft.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection had many problems and fans will probably be willing to forget a lot as long as they are able to play the new Halo, either cooperatively or competitively, without having to worry about an extra payment for Xbox Live Gold.