| heruamon said: The "holy grail" for an IP like Halo at this point is a robust MMO. Here’s my suspicion, Bungie and M$ are working on a MMO FPS for Halo, and Reach will actually serve as the test bed to work on some of the ideas that will be incorporated into the game. This makes a lot of sense for the two companies, since from an execution standpoint, this allows a sustainable model for both companies to work together in the current 2nd party format. The cost side of World of Warcraft is approx $200-250 million, but with a top subscription cost of $14.99, and with the membership levels at 12 million, the ROI for revenue has been over 10X, and that’s just staggering. If 360 continues on it’s current LTD trajectory, it is going to cross 50 million consoles with little problem. The question is whether a strong MMO on the 360 would serve as the perfect relay hand-off to Xbox next, or as a hindrance. I think it would aid the transition since you would be able to upgrade the client to run at a superior level on the next console, and also have it as a “Wii Sports” type of launch title. This would also allow them to spin-off things under Gold that really causes a lot of issues with customers/observers. You can pay an increase annual fee for Gold or pay monthly for the MMOs (Halo, FF14, 1vs100). 343 would maintain the game with technical support, with Bungie working on the 18-24 month refresh of new content with expansion packs. As for the design of the game, the Halo-verse is ripped for the execution of a MMO. On the human side, Spartans will be the uber characters as tanks/DPS/soloable characters…ala Death Knights in WoW. They are self-healing, and able to melee and range, but are not so overpowered that everybody chooses only them. Of course, you’ve got the ODST to server as the rogue/stealth class with sniper rifles and the sort. Then, you’ve got the medics to server as buffers and healers, and that’s pretty common. Lastly, you’ve got the Engineer as a combat buffer and pet handler. You can look at the Covenant to see how they too can be classed out. Brutes as tanks…not like Spartans of course, but rock hard. You’ve got the Elites as stealth/rogues and more capable…not quite up to full tank strength, but more like the Shamans of WoW...can buff, but also can fight solo. You’ve got the Jackals as your hunter class, and maybe have a pet for them of some kind. The grunts can be a support class, and maybe a cross between healers/buffers. So the classes for the Covenant wouldn’t Mirror the UNSC, but would in the total pool of functions. The Spartans would of course be the most popular characters, but I think people would still try the other classes, and while the game would be heavily based on a player’s ability to shoot FPS style, you would need to level and get better gears and stats to be able to become deadlier. The game would really allow for the “soft landing” from the 360 the Xbox next, and it makes tons of sense for Bungie to establish a steady source of revenue and income t o allow them more flexibility to fund other projects. For M$, it’s a no brainer as you’d probably see 3-4 million subscribers to the game, and would allow more flexibility to innovate with XBL. Anyway, these are just my ravings and probably isn’t ever going to happen, if for nothing else…for the risk of failure to a brand that has seen nothing but success since being launched. |
| heruamon said: Yeah, I think the only complicated issue will be the give-n-take of XBL. There is no way you're going to sell people on the concept of paying for Gold, in it's current format, and then charging for a Halo MMO. If you look at Dust 514, I think M$/Bungie could study that very carefully to see how to technically implemented, as I think CCP has one of the best solutions in Eve. |
I agree that a robust MMO is the future of the Halo series, and I think Reach is, story-line wise, the perfect place for it. But I think you're approaching it from the wrong angle. Trying to equate things to MMORPGs like WoW would be problematic. MMORPGs force you to level and get equipment and well balanced parties in order to defeat ever more powerful NPCs. a Halo MMO would be much closer in essense to planetside - a world populated by real people on both sides.
Clearly everyone would love to play Spartans, but there would be limits... for instance only being able to play as a Spartan every X number of respawns, with minimum performance requirements. (i.e. you couldn't quickly die repeatedly on purpose to be one again)
I picture a Halo MMO as a whole planet embroiled in combat - each side securing zones and capturing objectives. Different units would be available depending on what's happening elsewhere. The human players flying in space shoot down the dropships housing brutes? The covenant players may have to settle for respawning as jackals. The covenant players lock off human ships form the planet meaning only fast moving droppods are available, restricting humans to spawning ODSTs, etc.
And players could effect the space battles the same way. Covenant troops invade the areas powering MAC cannons to give their fleets the ability to close in on Reach. Objectives would be ever changing, and players could effect the ebb and flow of the conflict on a very global scale.
As for a pay model, it could be more modest than something like WoW. Requiring gold membership is expected, but it could also be inlcuded. The MMO costs $10/month and includes a gold membership or if you already have one the additional fee is only $5/month. Running a Halo MMOFPS would be somewhat lower cost than something like WoW.... Substantially less content is needed for the game itself, and volume subscribers are guaranteed, so a higher volume for lower subscription cost is viable. And this encourages more people to use Live Gold, which opens MS up to other revenue from people. And once a MMOFPS like this is online, keeping people subscribing is as simple as continually adding content. This would be easy - Reach is an entire planet, you can endlessly add objectives and combat zones for people to fight in - and the Halo universe has plenty of room for multiple arenas. Use the same engine to add in the battle of harvest would be easy. Even a smaller scale(but extremely exciting) one where the humans are the troops first leaving the Pillar of Autumn, and play the part of the various marines/ODSTs running missions all over the first Halo ring during the Halo:CE timeline. Getting to take part in all of these massive scale conflicts would keep people subscribing... especially if they made a point to add a new one every 4-6 months.
Ok, and now my ravings are done as well.
