Halo is being remade and releasing on PS. This has been coming for a while, but there is something we need to bring up. People have been talking about Sega, and comparing them and MS. This is not the same as what happened with Sega.

Sega had an identity when they were making consoles. They were anti Nintendo and gave them some competition. They were actually more popular in Europe and South America. Xbox had an identity, but the series doesn’t. Its identity is power and gamepass. When I think of Dreamcast, its sports games, arcade ports, and fighting games. When you think of Xbox series, it’s just gamepass or playing your old games.

Sega’s biggest issue was their timing. Had they not launched the Saturn or Dreamcast came out a year earlier, things could’ve been different. When the Dreamcast launched it had 19 games, several are still exclusive to this day. Xbox series just launched with the Falconeer. Xbox has the ability to fix its issues and doesn’t want to. They’re so focused more on being everywhere that they are nowhere.

Sega understood the position they were in and adjusted their business. The Microsoft CFO and a few others are the only ones who seem to know Xbox’s position. They’ve canceled games, laid off a lot of people, closed studios, and spent $80billion and are still in last place.

Sega had good games that went to other consoles and are remembered to this day. Sonic Adventure DX, 2 Battle, NBA 2k, Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Shenmue, Sega GT and Jet Set Radio. MS had once good games, that they’re now making cheap remakes of to bring everywhere else. Their new games are low effort, or being hyped by journalists.

The Sega ports to other consoles are thought as the best version of those. They had bug fixes, added content and could get big changes. Jet Set Radio Future was a retelling and semi sequel to the first game. Its visuals were changed, maps got bigger and music got remixed. When MS games come to other consoles, they sell better because people on Xbox just use gamepass to play them. No one really cares about them, theres no hype, and they get forgotten quick.

The Halo remake has the same issue I have with most UE5 games and remakes. They just throw in a lot of new assets and don’t try to recreate the original. They don’t try to replicate the art style or lighting of the original. They just put in the default engine lighting with overdone reflections. Halo went from being this Earth like ring with alien structures and mystery, to Earth in space with shiny ancient ruins. This is the second time 343 has messed up with the original Halo.

Theres this bad logic that influencers think because assets of a game are higher resolution, that means the game looks better as a whole. Some are saying they’re happy because more people can play the original Halo. Why would you want people to play a worse and more dumbed down game of what was a system seller? Others are asking whats wrong with Halo having sprint and ADS. Why would you want that in Halo? Adding other stuff from other games makes it another typical FPS and not Halo. 

Whats crazy is the fan remakes and mods understand this. Someone made a ray tracing mod for GTA IV. It keeps the original art style and lighting colors, but its ray traced. One guy did this and a group of a few hundred developers can’t? How does it take years to drag and drop assets? There was Halo 3: CE, where someone was remaking the first game in 3. I would’ve thought it would’ve been easier to do this, and or ray trace the original Halo. Then add some updated but still simplified assets.

How is it that this game has no multiplayer? Thats what also made the game what it is. We played Halo later after 2 and were never blown away by CE, but it’s obvious what made it popular.

This whole thing is getting worse every day. Xbox is dying and its franchises are being made more and more irrelevant by the people who keep telling how bright the future is.  I’m lost how people get in charge of a business they don’t understand. Though there’s evidence to believe it’s intentional.