Machiavellian said:
Well I am going to provide my disagreement. While Forge is a staple of Halo, it has not produced any more sales or actually added to the player base. In order for Forge to be as pivotal as you say, we would need to see significant uptick in Halo player base due to forge or its just a fancy tool for a limited few that use it. I would say the first and primary thing Halo need is new heads that can craft a story and produce a high quality AAA experience. Forge is one of those tools that is great to have and gives better scope to the game but Forge has been with Halo for a while and I just do not see where it has made a dent in the decline of the game and its audience. |
Eh? Did you miss this?
"Earlier this month, we featured four amazing community Forge creations in the Community Collection playlist, which has been the most popular Halo Infinite playlist since the game’s launch."
Forge is arguably a significant reason why Halo Infinite is still alive right now.
As you said, Forge is a staple of Halo, at this stage it's a very important aspect of Halo, hence why the first thing they're doing when moving over to Unreal Engine is seeing if Forge works with it and the sheer amount of effort/resources they have invested into both Halo 5 Forge and now Halo Infinite's Forge.
It's not like that map editor on Doom that nobody cared about, Lol. Forge was fairly popular in Halo 3, exploded in Halo Reach and has since then remained a very popular staple of Halo, to the point where any slight delay to it such as Halo 5's Forge delay causes the Halo fanbase to lose their shit.
Halo sells because of all of the parts added together, a great Campaign and a great Multiplayer suite which includes Forge. You're missing the point that Forge isn't just for those who create with it but those who play those creations, even so, Forge is very user friendly which means a lot of creations are made.
What Forge does is add to the longevity of a Halo title, it allows for people to go from the sweaty Multiplayer to just having pure mindless fun and taking a break from the more competitive side of Halo, without Forge, you would lose a lot of this wacky fun that Halo has given us since Halo 3.
It also now, as of Halo Infinite, allows for very high quality arena/BTB maps that can be created a lot quicker than Developer made maps.
I can assure you that if Halo dropped Forge, the Halo community would absolutely lose their shit and I would join them. 
