Bungie Admits "Poor Job Communicating" What ODST Was

Halo fans are well aware of the confusion around what ODST actually was in the minds of Bungie. It was initially announced as an expansion pack of sorts, making gamers expect a discounted price. Later in development, Bungie decided it featured enough new content to warrant a full-priced release, predictably angering the internet. Writer and Creative Director Joseph Staten has heard the complaints and backlash to the decision, and he's admitted to mistakes in a recent interview.

“We got criticized, fairly, for doing a poor job communicating what ODST was, an expansion pack or a full-fledged, AAA release,” he said. “It definitely turned out to be the latter. But, unfortunately, we didn’t know how much great work we were going to pull-off when we first announced the game. It’s impossible to know, but my gut says that if we’d never said the words ‘expansion pack’ we would have seen an appreciable increase in the review scores. Alas, hindsight is 20/20. But foresight is pretty hard too."

Design Lead Lars Bakken echoed that sentiment: "I'm no PR expert, but it's pretty obvious the game had a series of stumbles - from the naming, to the initial E3 2008 countdown reveal failure, and finally pricing. It would definitely be nice to have a do-over for the game introduction."

Now that you've had a chance to play it for a couple months, what do you think? Does ODST warrant a $60 price tag, or is it just an overpriced expansion pack?