Spencer: Halo without Master Chief just isn't as 'centered' on what players want

by Mike Schramm on Jul 11th 2011 10:10PM

We're not 100 percent sure what Microsoft Game Studios head Phil Spencer is trying to say in this quote from E3, but as far as we can tell, he's just happy that Halo 4 is returning the player to Master Chief's head. He says he wants to make sure that the new game "lives up to what I think gamers fell in love with," and for him, that means being the Chief again.

Spencer says Halo Reach "made more sense to you if you were a Halo fan. If you were new to Xbox 360, 360 is where you started playing on Xbox, you understood what Halo 3 was. ODST and Reach, maybe you weren't as centered." So, newcomers want -- and expect -- to play as the Chief, whereas fans of the franchise were fine with something new.

At any rate, Spencer's just trying to make it clear that Master Chief is coming back, in both the anniversary remake of Combat Evolved, and Halo 4 next year. Why couldn't you just say that, Phil?

Source: VG247

Tags: halo, halo-4, halo-odst, halo-reach, microsoft, pc, phil-spencer, xbox

Reader Comments (105)

Yeah, playing as Noble Team is just not the same thing. I hope Halo 4 doesn't have a depressing ending either.

@FlashJS You knew it was coming tho. But that last moment trying to survive on Legendary Co-Op is awesome.

@FlashJS I love Reach because I get to play as a voice acted female spartan in both online and campaign. Will still play CE remake and 4, but I hope they keep Reach's female model for multiplayer.

He's right for the most part. halo 3 was an event that the ones after it didn't have. Not sure if that is due to Chief or the fact that Halo really was a lot of people's first experiences with an online FPS. the 360 brought in a whole new group of people.

@Fire Walk With Me
I dunno... I never owned an Xbox and jumped in with 360, and Reach is my fav of the 360 Halos.

@Demaar

Nah, Halo 3 FTW.

@xFenixKnightx
Halo 3 IS pretty great and definitely worth owning, but only played it a couple of times. It didn't grab me like Reach did.

Yeah..but I was hoping that it would be by Bungie the day I came home with a new Halo game based around Master Chief again.

Granted, I'm excited to see what 343 has up their sleeves.

@Hi iTs SlayeR

343 has some ex-Bungie employees, so it's not like Microsoft turned the franchise over to a studio completely new to it.

@Spartan117458 it will feel different turning on the game and not seeing the Bungie logo along with the monk chants which I got used to seeing since 2001. It will be 343 now. Like Mortal Kombat, same people but new name, not the Midway logo. I know stuff like that doesn't matter I like the little things

@Spartan117458
I wish people would stop saying they're are Bungie workers in 343 so we shouldn't worry. Only one or two of the major Bungie workers have moved to 343. Everyone else are workers on the side.

Halo has always been about story to me. Unless if all the story board writers and such have moved to Bungie, then we still have to worry and wait to see what 343 pulls out of their rear ends.

@Hi iTs SlayeR I'm rather annoyed They are calling it Halo 4. Bungie clearly stated that the halo series was over and that Master Chief would return in a NEW trilogy that will not bare the name HALO

@KaySakura To clear that up. Unless the this new area Master Chief is in has a Halo and it is the main focus of the game then it is not a Halo game... Its just a Master Chief game...

@KaySakura No, they made it clear their involvement with Halo was over.
They made it clear that Halo 3 was the end of the Covenant story arc.

No where was it stated that there would never be more.

@KaySakura Microsoft spent 10 years and hundreds of millions of dollars marketing the word "Halo." They won't change it.

Huh. I guess I'm in the minority, because I felt Reach was the strongest entry in the franchise, and I've been playing since the beginning.

Yes, that includes every bit of nostalgia for Blood Gulch and the pistol from Halo CE I can muster.

@Temidien I think he's coming from a raw sales perspective and not a gameplay experience. I'm sure he'd say reach was well done. No where in the ballpark of H3 sales.

@Temidien
I'mma let you finish and the pistol is good but the DMR is the best gun all year.

@Temidien Here, here!

@Temidien
I agree with you, I've played and loved them all since the beginning, including Halo Wars, and Reach had the most emotional depth for me. I liked the sense of hopelessness, yet Noble team still fought to the bitter end. It made Spartans seem more real, less god-like.

@Temidien
I agree with you there. ODST and Reach showed a lot of maturity and depth in perspective to the one dimensional Master Chief-staring Halo 2 and 3.

@Fire Walk With Me

The hell are you smoking? Reach sold 8.5 million in under a year. Halo 3 is sitting at 11 after five.

@The Tim

I agree, I definitely enjoyed the more story focused attempts in Reach and ODST, especially with both presenting the exact severity of the situation and what was at stake. The main trilogy failed to get that across sometimes, as much as I loved those games.

@SuperWoody64

There are opinions, and then there is being wrong. Find any person who's played all the games in the series and does so competitively and I guarantee you that not one of them would agree with you. The DMR is utter shit.

@Temidien
"So, newcomers want -- and expect -- to play as the Chief, whereas fans of the franchise were fine with something new."

You didn't really disagree with the point being made there, since you've played each one from the start. No one said Reach sucked because it didn't have Chief.

@Temidien
Agreed. I enjoyed HALO: REACH more than any other in the series(both campaign and multiplayer modes), though Master Chief is obviously respected and welcomed as a protagonist again in HALO 4.

@kgoo867

"Find any person who's played all the games in the series and does so competitively"

why, hello there!

"I guarantee you that not one of them would agree with you. The DMR is utter shit. "

uh, no. the DMR is great. just because timing your shots takes more skill than the BR doesn't make it bad.

@foxhound
reach was good, we get it
but halo 3 had this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORTo_EW3N_Y&feature=player_detailpage#t=91s

@kgoo867

"There are opinions, and then there is being wrong." - this is true, so why is it that you are still trying to pass your opinions off as if they are fact?

"The DMR is utter shit." - see what you did there? i have been playing Halo (competitively) since the beginning of the series and i love the DMR. i call it the hole-punch gun, because it allows me to punch holes in people's heads. easily.

@Temidien
I think he's putting ideas in our heads.

@kgoo867 Could not agree with you more!

I disliked almost every aspect of ODST and I felt Reach's campaign lacked the epic war moments that Halo 1 and 3 had. However, forge in Reach was tied with Far Cry 2 on the map editor scale.

@Schlecht

My biggest complaint about ODST was the Hub World it really was only thrown in to lengthen the game by making you go from point A to B, it honestly didn't need to be there.

@Jawmuncher

I loved the hub world. The mood was just perfect. After ever mission, it reminded you that you were all alone. Maybe it's the movie buff in me

I love every halo game. When they said a new Halo trilogy...I was hoping for HaloWars2...halo4!!! Damn! Maybe in '13

@SuperWoody64
Well, considering Ensemble was dissolved after Halo Wars released, I don't know how much hope we have--

Well for their sake I sure do hope lack of sales is because of the lack of Master Chief and not fatigue with a decade old franchise.

@Aguiluz And apparently games that actually do well.

It's kinda' strange to think that Master Chief is such an enduring force when you, the player, are playing from his perspective and thus barely get to even see him.

@agneumeyer Not to mention the fact that he pretty much never talks.

@Faceless Troll

Have you actually played any of the first three Halo games? He talks quite a bit. Just because you don't have Mass Effect dialog wheels or Metal Gear style monologues doesn't mean he never talks.

@kgoo867 I think you're confused. Just because characters are talking to him doesn't mean he's actually talking back (and no, CGI cutscenes with the Chief as a kid doesn't count.)

@Faceless Troll

he doesn't talk a lot, but it's more than you think.

@Faceless Troll

i don't recall any CGI cutscenes with Chief as a kid.

i'm also a bit miffed by these comments that he never talks and is an emotionless protagonist. it's not like he's a mute like Gordon Freeman, and you all have hopefully experienced the emotion that those games can conjure up in oneself (see: Episode Two). i thought the final moment in Halo 3 when Master Chief is hunting for Cortana was actually quite emotional. not saying i cried or anything, but still, it DID feel good to get her back in Chief's head. or something.

Wouldn't people who don't have any attachments to the series be more open to something new than existing fans? That's how it usually works.

Of course it didn't help that Reach had worse writing than your typical Michael Bay film.

I'm looking forward to seeing what a different developer can do with the series. Despite Halo Reach having the strongest and most consistant compaign I kinda feel the series has been standing still since Halo 3.

...if the story is good. I like the campaigns of ODST and Reach better because they were just more story driven and had a better narratives for the plot as a whole. But I like John's story inside and outside of the games better since Noble Six and The Rookie were just nameless, faceless drones with no character. The Chief is cliche, but at least he has a story of some sort.

Thankfully Bungie won't be fooling around with the Halo universe ever again. Don't get me wrong, they created something great but they let it stagnate and decay rather than expanding on it. And their writers, well for some reason they felt they were more talented than best selling authors and decided to screw with the canon already in place after the release of Halo: CE. I never had too much confidence in Bungie. It seemed both MS Game Studios and FASA had to hold their hand every step of the way throughout game development and their studio (Bungie) was given ample time, budget and consideration over all others. Considering all they had going in their favor the products they produced didn't reflect it.

I can't wait to see what 343 Studios will do with the franchise.

@Anticrawl

If you ask me the most iconic thing from the Halo series is the score. So long as they keep the musical talent they'll be just fine.

@Anticrawl

F-ing seriously dude? Halo is not a ma' f-ing Microsoft game... it's a ma'f-ing Bungie game. You talk as though Microsoft was kind enough to let Bungie make Microsoft's game!!!! If it wasn't for Bungie, the original Xbox would never have taken off the way it did!
Just sayin'

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Spencer: Halo without Master Chief just isn't as 'centered' on what players want

Reader Comments (105)

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 9:13PM FlashJS said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 11:19PM Tommy758 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 1:46PM Hotaru99 said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:17PM Fire Walk With Me said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 9:33AM Demaar said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 9:57AM xFenixKnightx said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 6:31PM Demaar said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:18PM Hi iTs SlayeR said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:49PM Spartan117458 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 12:08AM Dance Mofo said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 12:38AM Hi iTs SlayeR said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 1:30AM KaySakura said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 1:32AM KaySakura said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 1:51AM Robborboy said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 10:38AM SurlyDuff said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:19PM Temidien said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:27PM Fire Walk With Me said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:32PM SuperWoody64 said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:33PM jbs1018 said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:38PM The Tim said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:40PM Master Marik said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:47PM Uberdave said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:55PM Xcrucio said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:58PM kgoo867 said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 11:04PM imadogg said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 11:14PM foxhound said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 1:14AM maveric101 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 1:23AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 1:46AM broken 4th wall said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:56PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 13th 2011 3:58PM V Stampeed said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:21PM Schlecht said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:24PM Jawmuncher said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 12:54AM EGOvoruhk said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:30PM SuperWoody64 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 12:30PM Opuelas said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:44PM bergen wine said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:48PM Uberdave said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:49PM agneumeyer said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:50PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:56PM kgoo867 said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 11:05PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 1:27AM maveric101 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 2:08AM broken 4th wall said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:49PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:51PM DrunkSte said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:53PM kgoo867 said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:59PM Anticrawl said

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