Next month, Microsoft will launch Halo Waypoint, a hub for all things Halo accessed through the Xbox 360 itself. During a phone interview this week about the project, I asked Jason Pace, creative director behind Halo Waypoint, to summarize why people should care:
"Waypoint is a place where we want Halo fans, when they're sitting at the console and actually interacting with their Xbox, to go and be able to have an experience that transcends each individual game and sort of wraps together everything at the entire Halo experience level," said Pace. "It's a single point of contact where you can go to establish your player identity across all of the different Halo games and feel like you have a single identity in that universe and then also experience all different kinds of content, from fiction to community content to interesting stuff -- like strategy guides -- that some of our partners put up. I would describe it as a central hub for the Halo experience."
But Halo Waypoint is a little more nuanced than that.
Halo Waypoint isn't mean to be a glorified Wikipedia page. As Pace explained the service, it will never replace the wealth of Halo-related information available on the Internet or the statistical data dump that is Bungie.net ("there's already a great thriving community on Bungie.net," he said). Halo Waypoint will be updated seven days a week with new content that's designed for a TV-based console experience. That means producing new video to present the Halo fiction or even collaborating with Bungie to rope together the community screen shots to share with the world.
Just because it's not meant to replace Bungie.net, however, doesn't mean it's not for the hardcore, though Pace expects Halo Waypoint may better appeal to the casual player a little more.
"I think that we will have more to offer the casual player or the player who is not necessarily hardcore multiplayer, although I hope that we're not excluding those folks," he said. "We always want to design experiences that are interesting to our hardcore fans, so I think the kinds of stuff that we're doing, for example the career system, it's really like allowing players -- and hopefully hardcore players, as well -- to establish a overarching Halo identity that transcends individual games and sort of follows them through their entire Halo experience."
Hardcore gamers might not immediately latch onto the career system because it's a meta-achievement system. In other words, there are no additional achievements coming to Halo 3, Halo Wars or Halo 3: ODST through Halo Waypoint, only additional Waypoint-specific achievements derived from achievements already built into those three games. Confused? Here's an example.
"We've got millions folks who love doing things with the Warthog, who love jacking vehicles," said Pace, "so if there's a way to recognize people and say 'hey, this person is just really awesome at doing vehicle things or doing sniper things or particular other kinds of activities, it'd be really great to pin that to your identity and say 'hey, I'm a really high level vehicle specialist and sniping specialist.' And that way, when you start talking to your friends, you can get a sense of their play styles."
Because Waypoint's meta-achievements are derived from pre-existing achievements, hardcore Halo players who have already unlocked all of the achievemetns in the previous games (a tall but possible feat) should have less interest in career because they'll already be top level. The solution to that problem won't come at launch, but Pace hopes to keep those players interested in coming back to Halo Waypoint through daily content refreshes...and some plans he can't talk about yet.
"If you're looking at a massively multiplayer online game, for example, almost everybody who puts in time and effort should be able to reach the level cap in that kind of system," he said. "And once you reach the level cap, there should be further things you can that differentiate yourself to show that you're uber, and that's what we're looking at now. For folks who do make it up to level 40 and figure that a lot of people will eventually get there, what do we do for them that makes it interesting and allows them to further differentiate themselves from other level 40s and from other lower-level players?"
As it stands, Halo Waypoint is a self-contained system. It's not included on the disc for Halo 3, Halo Wars or Halo 3: ODST and there are no plans to patch a menu option for Halo Waypoint into any of the currently available Halo games. You'll access Halo Waypoint through your Games Library, but that doesn't mean it won't become more deeply integrated into the Halo series moving forward.
"We have no commitments yet or any firm plans on how exactly the Waypoint integration is going to work in the future, but, absolutely, the goal is to continue to place Waypoint deeper and deeper into the actual game experience," said Pace. "We consider it [Waypoint] part of the Halo universe and it will become part of the Halo canon, depending on what part of Waypoint you're in. In that way, we view it as a game extension and because we view it as a game extension, we want the experience when you're playing a game when you're in Waypoint to become more seamless over time."
That's actually good news for gamers who might be interested in Halo Waypoint but have little interest in signing up for a subscription fee to become an Xbox Live Gold member. Halo Waypoint will become available for Silver users for a few weeks in November, but once that trial period passes, it becomes (yet another) Gold member exclusive. If Halo Waypoint becomes part of a future Halo title, however, there's hope for Silver members.
"Right now, we view Waypoint for Gold players in the same way that we view some of the premium multiplayer aspects of Gold membership," said Pace. "We look at Waypoint as sort of the premium Live experience. Moving forward, if we make elements of Waypoint integrated deeply into the game itself, then those pieces would likely be available to Silver members, as well."
Halo Waypoint launches November 5th. Xbox Live users who gain entry into the preview, which also adds support for Facebook and Twitter, can access it early.
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Comments
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yankeerob
Come to think of it I'm kind of getting tired of Halo. Heck I can't even get friends together to play any current Halo game right now. So while I wait for the Halo Reach beta, I'll be playing Left 4 Dead and Modern Warfare 2 and whatever else I can get my hands on.
bloodflow82
i think the halo train is coming to a halt. they are going to milk this one dry. it was supposed to end at halo 3. now the have more halo games coming, but they will continue as long as people are going to buy them. its a shame.
SmarterThanYou
The Halo gravy train is getting out of hand. End it. Please. Enough racist 11 year-olds. On the plus side, Halo draws those loud-mouth kids away from the good games.
Boogie1188
I love how their using Halo this way. It's awesome to see how a game has impacted pop culture in this way and is being incorporated into a new experience such as this. I'd like to see this with more games and/or systems.
JohnnyBuku
Its funny that $ony boys keep trashing Halo for milking the franchise, when there are countless examples of that on their favorite console also. Why trash something you don't (can't) even play? (same to xbox fans)
To me Halo still has legs I will continue to buy/play new games up until they stop delivering the fun.
SourProphit
I love Halo and all, but.... what?
I'll probably still check it out when it launches, but still.... What?
AvengerDdub
Halo is getting stale, but I believe Halo Reach is HIGHLY anticipated for the hardcore Halo fans who have been trying to piece together the Halo Timeline. Reach will be using a completely new gfx engine to operate on (ODST was just a polished version of the same engine used to run Halo 3, it was an expansion to the H3 experience) and the Beta Multiplayer is out in 2010 so this makes me think Bungie has had some of their best techy's sidelined working on the Reach project while Halo 3 was being created and I have a great feeling about Reach.
Viper12 ShowHide
After halo 1 it pretty much sucked. (peers around looking for angry 12 year olds) halo 2 was ok but 3 was all graphics...NOTHING ELSE!!! the story was horrible, the characters were totally unbelievable, and WTF happened the quality of the in-game effects? in halo 1 the explosions were frickin huge. in halo 2 they were about the same, but in halo 3 a scorpion tank made an explosion the size of a firecracker! WTF. I enjoyed ODST because you weren't a freakin bulletsponge. i loved it for just that. I'm really only looking forward to reach. The only way to experience halo is through the books.
xzavur
i beleave that this are for more of the hardcore fans. I may jump on and off but i dont see myself trying to have every meta-achievements just because im me. But I shall see...
M0NG00S3M0WD0WN
Unless it includes net coding for halo: ce, I really don't care
Bleugh07
i don't understand everyone's problem with this - more value for gold members and halo fans at no extra cost, and a hub for the fanboys. maybe halo is being milked, but so long as they keep giving me fun games i don't mind. halo is the flagship xbox franchise now and people don't need to keep calling it the spawnof satan - it's a quality game and remember - it's not like nintendo haven't been making loads of mario content, and nobody calls those games tired and old. ps3 fanboys please don't rant at me - i know that there are idiot fanboys on both sides, i don't care. i would be happy with a nice ps3 now that there are so many nice exclusives on the way
Drugruber
I love halo, I know alot about the story and i Like how the game plays but i dont like how bungie inst in control of it anymore, look at halo wars the charachters were not cool in anyway, and though the gameplay is fun the story didnt do it for me like bungies stories have. Waypoint could be cool but if there going to put there version of what they think the haloverse should be like then im afraid they might ruin it and theres alot of people out there who think that if one of theses halo games has a stupid plot they will blame bungie, even if its not there game.
EldritchWarlord
Wow, I'm seeing every Halo Thread stereotype there is.
The guy saying that Halo is milked
The guy saying that Halo sucks
The guy saying that Halo sucked after Halo 1
The guy saying that Sony fanboys should shut up about how much Halo sucks
The guy saying that Halo 3 was supposed to be the last Halo
The guy saying that all Halo fans are loud, foul-mouthed, homophobic, racist juveniles
Way to be original people of G4TV.com (not the staff, you guys are cool).
Getting past the people who saw the word "Halo" and wrote their preprogramed response and the people responding to these responses I see three on-topic posts.
Halo Waypoint is the topic people, emphasis on the "Waypoint".
I think Waypoint is looking pretty good, better even then when they first announced it. However, as my brother so eloquently put it, it's "nothing to lose our pants over." At best this will be something you check out ever couple days, not that that's a bad thing. Plus you can't argue with the price if you're a Gold subscriber.
vanphelan
I'm not saying that Halo is the greatest thing ever, it's far from it. But do you think that trashing it and calling it bad is going to stop me or other people from playing it? And just because you recognize microsoft milking the franchise doesn't mean they are going to stop. That would just be bad buisness. I don't understand why people can't just play the games they enjoy without ripping other games and being stupid. I've been playing video games sense the Atari. It's not just Halo that has all the loudmouth little kids believe me I run into them in every game I play online. You can't avoid it.
vanapes
agrre with yankeerob
pscience
im tired of people saying 12 year olds play halo, in my experience iv seen way more yelling 12 year olds in Call of Duty
Rock_N_Rola
halo is a great game and all, but after halo 3 it makes you wonder whats going to happen next. I mean it would be hard to make a sequal to it right? Bungie has had to revert to making games without master chief (insnt that realy the point of halo?). The multiplayer is the only thing keeping people playing it (and still i see none of my friends playing)! Dont get me wrong though I still love the game. odst was prety cool so mabey the new games will be cool,like reach. i'm going to continue buying and playing the games. I just pray that halo wont come to an end.
Adrenalyn915
What is with all of the Halo hate? Why the hell are people complaining about getting MORE games!?!? It just sickens me... yes, certain games are being milked, and developers should slow it down a little bit (Madden), Halo is picking up its pace a little to fast, but I don't think it becomes a bad thing until they start rushing on one game, just to make another... which I don't think Bungie is doing yet. Technically Halo only has 3 main games, in 8 years, which I don't think is too bad. I mean, it could just be me, I still love Final Fantasy, and they've already announced number XIV! I do agree that there are way too many whiny teens in the Halo multiplayer, but that doesn't mean it is a bad game. If you really hate Halo that much, don't play it, but there are still a ton of people out there who love it, and want to find out more about the universe!
P.S.: Who would've thought that I would be on here, defending XBOX 360's only great game!?
pmc_soap
i am the most interested in acheivements but this is lookin pretty coolim excited for the timeline on waypoint and for info on reach
pmc_soap
i mean halo didnt have a game for 2 years after halo 3 so y cant they pick up the pace for lil and slow it down i was hoping reach would come out early to mid next year though
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