With the devastating release of "Halo: The Master Chief Collection," there is this major trepidation that "Halo 5: Guardians" would go down the same road as its predecessor. Gamers have this unspoken restlessness about the title's quality.
The game studio crafting the game piece by piece may have slipped but it gave its word that the team will not make the same mistake twice. Its reputation may not be as pristine as it was, but 343 Industries is eager to make things right with its latest first-person shooter video game.
In an interview with Xbox Achievements, Franchise Development Director Frank O'Connor admitted that "Halo: The Master Chief Collection" was "definitely a black eye for [the team]" and that they acknowledge the mistakes they committed while retelling the work behind the disastrous launch.
"We're not going to rest on our laurels or hide from the mistakes we made," O'Connor said. "However, I will say that the nature of The Master Chief Collection — you've got five different game engines, you've got five different studios working on it, you've got 343 working on putting it all together — the footprint and complexity was outrageous."
The director also revealed that the ubiquitous issue "caught [them] by surprise" because the results that came back after testing the game indicated that the title was ready for retail.
The blunder may not be easy to leave behind and it may still resonate on the sales for the upcoming shooter but O'Connor is confident that the next game is a different story and is a good one at that.
The Xbox One exclusive is being developed by a "completely different team" and unlike its predecessor, the future title is "a singular product." O'Connor believes that this one will be a feat for the studio this time.
"It was built from the ground up for this new technology, rather than being sort of dragged kicking and screaming from 2001 and forced and shoehorned into a 2014 console," he explained. "So the problem spaces are still very challenging but they're radically different. I think the beta is already a decent first step, in a retail environment, showing that we don't have the same problems."
"Halo 5: Guardians" will be rolled out on Oct. 27.
