Halo Infinite – The resurrection of an Esport

Nothing happened for several years and Halo slowly faded into oblivion, but suddenly it was back – and with a big bang. The Halo Championship Series made an impressive return with some serious prize money after the release of Halo Infinite.

Halo: Combat Evolved

When Halo: Combat Evolved came out in November 2001 the forerunners of Esports were already fully underway. Counter-Strike 1.6, arcade classics like Street Fighter 2 and StarCraft: Brood War, had paved the way for competitive gaming.

 

When Halo 2 first came out, online gaming also emerged with Xbox Live. At that time, Major League Gaming made a name for themselves with organizing high-level console tournaments in America. In 2006 they even started to broadcast Halo Games on national TV, so basically everyone knew what Halo was.

Call of Duty Replacement

In the following years, however, Call of Duty outpaced the console game. A game that had its roots on the PC, but was becoming more and more of a console title, with annual releases that kept its fanbase coming back to the game series for the next version. Thus, publisher Activision filled the need for new content and swung to the top.

Combined with a pro league, like the Halo Championship Series is, Call of Duty became the biggest console esport in America. Outside of the U.S., there are almost no console leagues, if you exclude FIFA and Rocket League, which is very similar to the American football, basketball, and baseball scenes in “real life” the sports that dominate public life in America but are barely noticed outside of the States.

Is pumping money into it enough?

The good thing about games: If the publisher of the game pumps in enough money almost every Esport becomes at least semi-successful, at least if the game isn’t complete crap. See League of Legends, Call of Duty, Valorant and for example Overwatch (cough!). There seems to be the same logic in the Halo makers camp, they push Esports by luring with prize money and the structure of a league that looks as professional as possible and makes some tam-tam.

With Overwatch, it was easy to see that if the game and the technology behind it don’t make a good Esport, it doesn’t matter how much the publisher pushes it. The game as an Esport will fail. Whether Halo will become an international success like Counter-Strike:Global Offensive in the long run remains to be seen and is highly likely to be doubted.