Halo's Big Budget PS5 Remake Battered by Basic Black Ops Ports in Official PS Store Charts

It’s fair to say that Master Chief has really had his day. I definitely was expecting to see this land on the PlayStation 5 and cause major ripples, but it has not sold anywhere near the numbers I was expecting to read about. With all the talk about Microsoft taking all their exclusives back to their own ecosystem, it’s not really going to change the direction of the needle. Off topic, but even the new Gears is getting a bit of negativity aswell, I guess Microsoft really don’t have the big hitters like they used to, outside of COD I suppose.

If it had multiplayer pvp it would be closer to the top imo

@Bsb56 yeah I agree if it had mp people would buy it

Pathetic. Halo was great. Not perfect, and needs a couple of patches, but great. However, what really killed it was that it was overpriced. People complain about the lack of PvP, which I get (though I don't care about it), but really, they could have sold more if they made it much cheaper. Typical corporate greed. And, of course, they would have sold a ton of The Master Chief Collection if they ported it, but no...they wanted to drip feed and overcharge, and they got their hand slapped for it.

Maybe the success of BLOps caught Microsoft just as much by surprise, but I have to wonder why they were released on top of one another, burying Halo. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of coordination going on over there.

It’s sad, but unsurprising. Halo isn’t what it used to be, and if Modern Warfare 3 didn’t kill the series, nothing will (the new one)

Halo used to be a cultural icon that people would wait overnight at stores to buy when it came out. Now it's just another series the majority ignore. It's a shame.

Maybe they should’ve done a basic port of Combat Evolved

Yeah definitely expected halo to move more units but then again I tend to agree with those who say the franchise hasn’t got the pull it once did.

I read this as:

1. Black Ops 1/2 are huge. Even if they weren't remastered, it doesn't take away from how much people just wanted to be able to play them on modern PlayStations.
2. Halo, despite having great campaigns, is a multiplayer-first series. Without MP, there is significantly less demand, even with the novelty factor of it being on PlayStation.
3. Halo Studios/343 Industries has done chip damage to Halo over the last 15 years. Even if none of their games are bad, Halo has not been a "must play" franchise since Bungie was in charge. Halo used to be a trailblazer. Now, Halo is reactionary.

As an aside, while I haven't played it yet, I'm sure Campaign Evolved is excellent. Anything negative I've heard about the game (aside from it lacking MP) has come across as incredibly nitpicky. If you prefer the original, just play that and leave the remake for new players. The remake existing doesn't inhibit your ability to play the original in any way.

It’s a 25yr halo game with no multiplayer oh and in the month or so leading up to release MS then turned around and said they are looking at exclusivity again.

So why would people clamour to buy it?

The weight of the Halo and Gears names simply is nowhere near what it used to be in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Call of Duty will sadly always sell on brand name alone regardless of quality.

Frankly, I would love it if publishers stopped this whole remake facade and just started porting old games to new consoles. Double-frankly, while I think Campaign Evolved is a solid remake, I still much prefer playing the MCC remaster.

Also CoD is much bigger than Halo at this point, and those remakes costed $20 for a PS+ limited sale. This news would only surprise the most out of touch gamer.

@Bionic-Spencer And Forza Horizon.

(And if we’re counting COD, then Diablo as well as Fallout and Elder Scrolls whenever they get around to releasing new games).

They still have a good number of heavy hitters. Just that most of them aren’t “home grown”.

@BrokenByTheScream I don't know if I fully understand the argument when people say that CoD is of poor quality. Are they incredibly iterative? Yes, 100%. But they still boast some of the best FPS gameplay in the entire industry.

If you've had a top-tier burger every day for a year and each burger is basically the same as the last, it doesn't mean that the last burger you ate is bad. Maybe lacking in variety, but not bad.

@Bionic-Spencer it was a poor remake, just like the gears of war 1 remake. 343 & The Coalition are incapable of making good Halo & Gears of War games, even when they’re copying Bungie, & Epic Games, work.

I'm pretty sure that sweet potato curry is outsold by big macs too.

I said it the other day. Of course a port that cost $26 (Base game and dlc) with ps plus with alot of content out performed a $50 10 hour campaign. Everyone is likely waiting for a sale.

@BrokenByTheScream This is true. Going by how the E-Day beta went, the new Gears of War will freaking flop. The soul of the franchise is just gone, and they can’t move this series past 2008.

M$ desperately needs to keep trying to make new IPs because Halo & Gears are of a different time that can’t age well, unfortunately

@JustBusiness Because 343/“Halo Studios” is garbage. They need to go.

@wildcat_kickz Your speaking a lot of sense.
Well said 👏

Apparently I'm the only one who enjoys gears of war here looking forward to e-day 😅

That's because Halo remake's story has nothing to do with Halo, it's practically anti-Halo

@nomither6 Halo 4 > Halo 3, fight me.

Not surprise with Halo didn't sold well on PS.

1. Halo franchise already left behind its glory era for years and i don't see any sign MS / Halo Studio can bring back that era for the 2nd time.

2. The majority of PS fanbase are live-service gacha kids and whales. So no one in that audiences gives a finger about a green space marine shooting goofy aliens. They would rather played Palworld, Roblox, or Minecraft.

And ngl, that chart looks pretty sad. I expect PS6 chart will be the same dominated with live service gacha games, yearly sport, COD, GTA, and one or two anomaly.

I'm not surprised to be honest, whilst the ports were bare bones I think people underestimate just how beloved Black Ops was. That alongside MW2 were the peak of COD MP. So much nostalgia and with the PS Plus discount bringing the price down its hardly surprising. If that surprises anyone then perhaps open the windows in the echo chamber.

I also really don't think the lack of multiplayer has much at all to do with these results. Only sickos like me who know what Crimson Skies and Kung Fu Chaos are have nostalgia for Combat Evolved multiplayer.

WAY more gamers are nostalgic for Blops multiplayer than CE's. Maybe if it were a Halo 2 or 3 remake, multiplayer would've swayed more.

All goes in the same bin
70% Microsoft
30% Sony
All money whatever the game and were in the charts.

If it had been a glow up port with no nonsense multiplayer at $39, Halo would be dominating. It would have gone even better if they had done that with Halo 2 instead.

I just don’t think halo is the massive franchise people make it out to be. Maybe 20 years ago but certainly not anymore

@nomither6 it's not a poor remake at all. Yes they could have really gone to town on it but poor? Gears of war is poor. I bought it cheap and I'm struggling to keep playing it. Controller lag and piss poor net code online is really ruining it for me. I'm having a lot of fun with halo.

What a miserable top 20.

It hurts my soul but it's the sad reality of Halo. Even going cross-platform doesn't change the future of the IP from looking bleak. Halo was unlikely to stay relevant for future generations without completely changing its identity, so probably for the best it ends sooner rather than later 😔 I can only hope MCC goes cross platform down the line, it truly is a great collection of single and multiplayer offerings!

They need to put halo in the bin.

2 key takeaways for Xbox:

1) Don't expect games which form part of a series to sell well on PS5 whilst there is ANY chance of the series being made exclusive ever again.

2) Don't release 3 first person shooting games in the same month, and expect all to sell.

Also its important to ad context that Halo Campaign Evolved launched oficially on the 28th, yeah you COULD play it on the 23rd if you paid 20 dollars more but thats a minority of people.
For a game that was only effectivelly counted for 3 days to be on 6 is really good.
Usually Push Square points that out when the subject is sales numbers, and the fact you didnt this time tells me there's some sort of bias going on maybe?

To be fair I'm not saying Halo would have surpassed COD, not even in its hayday that would be possible, but its definitelly better than the article leads you to believe.

@Dalamar blasphemy!! 2+3 were perfection!

Should of done Halo 2 with MP. Would of done twice at good at least, I certainly would of bought it.

@Northern_munkey Couldnt agree more. I have no history with Halo or Gears.
I bought gears and I really had to force myself to finish it, it wasnt bad but it was fine.
I'm having a blast with halo, game is super fun, its gorgeous and plays like a dream, splitscreen with the wife is also fantastic.
Calling this a poor remake is bordering on insanity even if I do agree that there should have been a MP mode.

2 crappy digital only ports.
This doesn't help the digital v disc argument either...

Ps store just ain't got the smartest buyers.

Not having multiplayer probably massively diminished Halo's potential sales.

I think this kinda shows what drives Sony's charts and numbers. It's the people that mainly only want yearly sports titles and generic shooters that are also released yearly. Even if Black Ops and BO2 are good games, they are also the reason the industry is the way it is rn.

@PeteyPiranha I have nothing against 2 ^_^

@Northern_munkey if they could have “really gone to town on it” then that says to me that it’s really mid. As someone that has the MCC im in no rush to play this

I found Halo to be boring. It looks amazing but it feels old - and I get it, it’s a new update to an older game, but it feels like it’s one for existing fans that doesn’t have compelling reasons for new players to come to it. I haven’t played these CoD games since the original releases, but whether they’re graphically inferior or not, these ports probably feel more modern to play and cost less than Halo.

Quick give cortana a bigger chin and add another girlboss to talk down to chief

@wildcat_kickz Lol halo has better gameplay

As someone who played the original at launch and the anniversary remake, I wasn't onboard with some of the changes to Halo in this most recent remake.

Yet.... it is still a great game.

The fact that PlayStation gamers went out and bought more copies of CoD, is not a good look.

It's actually really embarrassing, something to be ashamed of, and makes PlayStation users a laughing stock.

Frankly I'd have buried this story...

You vote with your wallet and get more of what you vote for.

Good luck with that one folks. You just lost the right to complain. You finally got a good quality single player story game, and you blew it and bought CoD. Hey ho.

What ?? You mean the overpriced slightly above par remaster wasn't top of the charts,.its almost like gears and halo are brothers....

Anybody who bought them crap call of duty ports needs there heads looking at

@urbical Depends on what you want out of a game.

@Dogbreath you sound like someone who eats pizza crust first, pours the milk into the bowl before the cereal, runs his tooth brush under the faucet after he applied the toothpaste, and then tried to convince everyone else they were on deep on the spectrum...

As someone that has the MCC im in no rush to play this

@nomither6 You seem to have some pretty strong opinions for someone who hasn't even played the remake.

Not having multiplayer is hurting the game.

Microsoft cock blocking its own games is certainly a new one

And which first party PlayStation games made the list in the USA? F**king zero. And in Europe? GT7 only. And still outsold by FH.

Rather than making articles about XBOX, shouldn't you be talking about PlayStation and their absence from their own console? 🤔

@Bsb56 true but Halo Studios cant make a complete game to save their lives

@LordOfTurnips that was my first thought, it had only just come out at the end of the month!
I do think it under sold and was hindered by not having multiplayer, but I think people are going in strong for a game that was on sale for 4 days of the month.

2nd thought was we’re having a port vs remake debate and wether Halo was worth the money the studio spent on it, but the Assassins Creed Black Flag remake has been selling well!

@SMJ MLB The Show is on the list and Wolverine will undoubtedly be on the list later this year. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Spider-Man 1, 2, and Morales were on the list next month, now that the movie is out.

@nomither6 yeah that dosnt mean it's poor. It's a great looking game and plays extremely well. I've not played a halo game since halo reach so for me it's a great game but I understand its not for everybody.

@LordOfTurnips push Square biased? Never.

@wildcat_kickz MLB. That's your go to. And some games that haven't released yet.

PlayStation first party studios have been incredibly weak for this entire generation.

It didn’t even sell so well on Xbox. No multiplayer coupled with how the three new missions have been roasted. For 50$ with multiplayer it would have sold more. Most of us whom have an Xbox also still have the Master Chief Collection, which has multiplayer.

@TheDarts "That's because Halo remake's story has nothing to do with Halo." What? You can't be serious with this comment? This is one of the most insane comments I've read in a long,long time. Halo campaign evolved is the start of the whole halo story line. I'm sat here drinking a cup of tea and I nearly spat it out when I read this.

Why are sites like this tiptoeing around why the halo remake bombed and severly undersold, its because they added characters people never asked for that don't fit the original game, they made it more "diverse" just because even removing characters who created the game from the game, no multiplayer is a big one, the lines are acted and delivered poorly and the game is lazy with consistency with the lore of the actual series....so yea its obvious why people didn't buy it quit pretending its great... especially for 50 bucks when you can get the mc collection super cheap with 6 games included with all the multiplayer as well, while the black ops ports do suck, but 30 bucks gets you the game and all the dlc, much better value and obviously people are hungry for cod that's not as trashy as bo7

@SMJ Lol. It's not my "go to." I don't play it. But it also proves your comment false. Just because you don't play it either doesn't make it not a first party game (and a wildly successful first party game, at that).

Also, three of the four games I mentioned have already released.

I don't disagree that PlayStation first party output has been worse this generation, but I'm not lacking for games, so it doesn't really bother me.

PlayStation First Party Studios games that have released this generation that I've played (and enjoyed):

Demon's Souls
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart
Horizon Forbidden West
The Last of Us: Part 1
Helldivers 2
Concord (just kidding)
Astro Bot
Marathon

Not a bad list, if you ask me.

@ParadoxFawkes this whole "diversity" thing about this halo game is ridiculous and blown out of proportion. It dosnt make any difference to how the game plays and it has no bearing on the story at all. Also the lack of multiplayer as in tdm etc makes no difference to the game as it was only ever split screen or lan in the original anyway and at least this version of halo has online co-op. I'm not a huge fan of wokeness and forced diversity in games but I honestly think it's a load of hullabaloo over nothing in this game. There are much worse offenders to pick from.

@ParadoxFawkes I doubt the characters had anything to do with it. It was always going to be a questionable value to some without the multiplayer. I had a ball with some friends in co-op with this version.

@RagnarLothbrok 😂

What a horrible list gamers have no taste.

@Flaming_Kaiser no they just don't share the same taste you do.

@Northern_munkey while there are worse games to pick from its tiring and not worth throwing any money towards anymore, games that spend their whole development time working on those things forget to make a fun game underneath, Ubisoft has been a big offender of this and everyone wonders why some games aren't selling anymore even with built in fanbases, I'm glad if anyone who bought this game is enjoying it because not enjoying it would be a downer for them of course but yea if they wanted to do Halo right, this wasn't it and its really easy to play the master chief collection that holds up fantastically today

That's very depressing.

Why would publishers put any effort in if it can be proven a game will sell regardless of even a basic amount of effort

Halo is 25yrs old and been released 3 times prior to this. Its missing the MP and its not cheap for a 25yr old game with the MP missing and a few 'bonus' missions added instead.

Even Halo fans aren't rushing out to buy it - they've likely got the OG release, 10th anniversary edition and/or MCC edition. They aren't buying it at that price for an 8h 'campaign' only when its the MP that adds the longevity.

The Black Ops ports at least bring EVERY aspect inc its MP to modern Hardware and PS fans are more likely to want to revisit these for nostalgic purposes than buy a Game they had no attachment to.

As I said, even Xbox/PC gamers aren't buying this in big numbers either and the MCC is where the MP Nostalgia lies, as well as the opportunity to play ALL the Halo Campaigns too.

@wildcat_kickz I actually think that's a pretty poor first party lineup in nearly 6 years.

Also, how many of the games you mentioned, weren't or couldn't have been on PS4?

Apart from Concord (the best game ever).

I have a lot of nostalgia for Halo as I enjoyed the original. But Campaign Evolved is almost full price for a remaster of a game that most people are familiar with. However for some reason Microsoft decided to leave out the relatively basic, but tremendously enjoyable, multiplayer. If it had included it it would have a bigger player base.

As others have said, considering this version of Halo doesn’t include MP (you know, the main draw of the series), along with it being a lot more expensive, and the Halo franchise not being as present in the minds of the general gaming audience these days, it’s not surprising that it’s not doing as well as the CoD ports. Had these Black Ops ports also ditched the multiplayer, and didn’t launch with a sale, I can assure you they wouldn’t have sold as well either.

Well this is crushing, especially considering the amount of effort put into both and which one clearly deserves the praise and sales.
Personally, I haven’t bought it yet because the economy is sh*t and it’s digital only. Yeah, there’s a disc but it’s got only a few MB onboard. It’s basically digital only.
Once I found that out I cancelled my preorder. I know I’m not the only one and I wonder how that also affected sales numbers…

@Northern_munkey Then people should stop complaining about things like the better studio's closing.

The same warmed up slop is what making gaming worse. Narrow scope, different characters, no risks, no originality.

And the worst thing showing developers don't make any effort just put out the same slop with minimal effort.

@Northern_munkey If someone hates diversity it does not matter. I the guy is wearing a pink shirt is enough to call it woke.

Twitter (i refuse to call it X such a stupid name) alone makes me see what we are dealing with.

A woman in a post apocalyptic world in game she doesn't wear enough make-up, her boobs are to small and she doesn't look like a Korean 20 year old girl with a perfect physique and skincare.

While in BF5 with a woman on the cover with prosthetic it's not realistic enough. In the end its not what is good it's what fits in their closed of minds of what they want.

Kind of a EA move from Microsoft putting the same titles in the same month to release and feel weird about it not performing.

@Flaming_Kaiser maybe stop complaining about the people complaining and focus on the games you want 👍

"Escape the Backrooms" is in there twice for Europe (titled "Backrooms: Escape Together"). That seems to be a mistake?

jeez louise, these comments are miserable. Regarding Halo's flop, it's simple Blops was cheaper and offered more content with it's multiplayer. Halo was singleplayer only and Halo has never been a narrative powerhouse.

Pfft. Halo:Campaign Evolved is overpriced for what you get.
The Master Chief Collection gives you a superior remake of Halo 1 in Halo:Anniversary plus all the other good Halo games and Halo 4 for less money even at full price.

I'll pick it up when it's a lot cheaper. The problem is, you can guarantee Microsoft will release any further Halo games on the PS5..

@SMJ I don't know, man. I think your expectations might need to be recalibrated. There are plenty other games that released for PS5; I just haven't played them (Ragnarok, Yotei, Returnal, Saros, etc.).

I know we used to get a bunch of games more frequently, but I'm perfectly content with a couple AAA first party games a year, some second party supplementals, and a bunch of third parties. I don't need to be inundated with a new Sony game every two months. Could Sony do more? Yeah, probably. But I don't think it's as dire as you make it out to be.

Part of the reason that the games industry is in the state that it's in is because there are way too many releases for the amount of consumers there are.

I just want a straight port, no need for improvements, of both Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. They deserve a new generation to shine on. $20 each, $35 if bought together. That package is my dream (I don't have my xbox anymore after many relocations and movings).

I like that The Witcher is so high up for Europe! If Halo had multiplayer and/or been cheaper, it would've sold more. Honestly, if they had done a straight port of the series, I think it would've sold really well. But why buy the first in a series that's gonna be exclusive again?

This proves that re-releasing low effort ports of beloved old games will sell well. Is it time again for another The Last of Us release?

I wonder how much of this was people bought Halo physically (yes I know it's mostly still a download) just to have a physical ps5 copy of Halo. So the sells look off but if you count in people like me that bought the physical the numbers may look different. Probably still not in Halo's favor but closer.

@SMJ "PlayStation first party studios have been incredibly weak for this entire generation."

Still way better than microsoft's, although that's not really saying much

@SteveBTW I think you'll find that there are plenty of PlayStation only gamers who have been disappointed with Sony's output this generation.

@SMJ Significantly less than xbox only "gamers"