Is Halo still big enough to save the X1?

[Kongfucius]

MoHasanie said:

Salnax said:
On one hand, I think that Halo hit its high point 2007. Halo 4 sold quite a bit less than 3 and Reach, despite 2 outselling the original. I wouldn't be surprised if Halo 5 only sold about 7 million copies lifetime, less than any main game since the original.

That said, does the One need saving? Halo will definately help the system, Titanfall can be a killer app, and we are still waiting for the first real round of "casual" Kinect games that are almost certain to be in the works. These ought to keep the One at healthy levels. Not to mention the console is still yet to be released in much of the world. North America might be the core of Xboxland, but 35 million 360's were sold elsewhere.

I personally expect the Xbone to reach stable and healthy levels around the release of Titanfall, in less than a month.

Yes but Halo 4 sold faster than both 3 and Reach. In the same period of time, Halo 4 sold the most. So the franshise isn't showing any signs of decline. 

Perhaps, but the critical reception wasn't quite as hot as for previous titles and that often only shows its full effects on later titles - Final Fantasy XIII is an excellent example - it sold over 7.1m units despite being sternly criticised, making it the 4th best selling entry in the series, which seems very strong, but FFXIII-2 had done only 3.2m and LR:FFXIII looks like it'll do even worse

A good illustration of how not all was well with Halo 4 is in the multiplayer player counts which declined quickly, a big problem in an AAA FPS where MP is a large part of the appeal for many people. This GAF thread explains it in plenty of detail. As you'll see there were certain unique circumstances regarding mistakes made by 343i and MS in their marketing and it was going up against COD which Halo 5 probably won't, but it still shows how Halo isn't quite the cast-iron juggurnaut it once was

It's still certiainly an important asset for Xbone, however