Draugoth
Gold Member
Through LinkedIn, the former Halo developer criticized 343 Industries and warned other professionals to avoid the studio. He even claims that the studio's leadership is a “cancer”.
Source
Source 2
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Former Halo developer criticizes 343 Industries and warns other professionals to avoid the studio 'They are cancer now'
Through LinkedIn, the former Halo developer criticized 343 Industries and warned other professionals to avoid the studio. He even claims that the studio's leadership is a “cancer”.
Source
Source 2
Grildon Tundy
Gold Member
343 management meeting: "Well, at least he didn't specify 'malignant'."
Cert.in.Death
Member
I agree
Add my take to the thread title, stand with me brethren
Add my take to the thread title, stand with me brethren
ZehDon
Gold Member
Mentioned this in the "343i is dead" thread. Dude comes across as pretty bitter, which is fair if he's been fired, but trying to paint 343i's devs as the best in the industry really makes me question their perspective. There's a reason Microsoft had to gut the studio, re-brand the team, and basically say "mulligan" on 343i's era - and it's not because 343i's devs were too talented...
snapdragon
Member
Leadership can change or degenerate over time
Branded
Gold Member
I mean it's not as if the writing isn't on the wall with 343i and Halo over the past few years lol.
Little Chicken
Member
Not this over 3 day old reddit post becoming a thread.
The community expect Rockstar tier game every 6 years from Halo Studios, of course either ways, the environment can't be nice, Rockstar getaway with their shit, other studios are not unfortunately.
Codes 208
Member
I mean, MS did cut off most of the heads off of 343 and its been pretty much confirmed they were using mostly contract workers for infinite leading to a toxic working environment.
Something something where theres smoke theres fire.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Very enjoyable seeing video game people complain on social media. Doesn't matter if it's while they are there or after the leave. Always itching for a last lecture from the podium. lol
Yet, it was Pierre's leadership that LITERALLY FIXED Halo: MCC.
To me, it sounds like Pierre is a "get shit done" kind of guy, which is probably why he got promoted and is now the new guy basically leading Halo Infinite and the new Halo projects and this animator doesn't like the "get shit done" kind of atmosphere.
343i NEEDED to be gutted and restarted. The leadership was all over the place and it looks like this new "reboot" of the studio is what they need, because lets be honest, shit wasn't getting done properly before.
IntentionalPun
Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
I swear it's never actual coders doing this social media drama stuff, but everyone else in "Game development," usually having to do with art.
We all know 343i sucks either way, but it seems like they've changed about half their leaders in the last year so it's not just "Comcast renamed to xFinity."
We all know 343i sucks either way, but it seems like they've changed about half their leaders in the last year so it's not just "Comcast renamed to xFinity."
There are few things that disgust me more than seeing someone use the word "cancer" so lightly to disqualify other people or describe situations that are ultimately everyday.... They are usually people who do not know or have not suffered from such a hard, painful and difficult disease to face.
From there, he has spent 13 years in a Studio that has not met expectations and has not stood out in the part where he was responsible (animations). Whether he is right and the Studio leaders are inept will be seen in the future. Now his attitude is that of a disgruntled ex-employee and a bad colleague. Apart from the fact that he has closed many doors for himself in the future when he looks for a job.
From there, he has spent 13 years in a Studio that has not met expectations and has not stood out in the part where he was responsible (animations). Whether he is right and the Studio leaders are inept will be seen in the future. Now his attitude is that of a disgruntled ex-employee and a bad colleague. Apart from the fact that he has closed many doors for himself in the future when he looks for a job.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Possibly.
Like any program a company uses, sometimes it' worth changing. If it makes sense financially, usability is expected to be good, and helps streamline business do it. Problem is it takes time to do, people might hate it, and there's always a chance the new system stinks.
If Halo is going Unreal 5, it'll be interesting how well received it ends up from the programmers and how all the Halo stuff transfers over.
It's like a big company implementing SAP. It works for some, it doesnt for others. Sometimes, it's rushed through, sometimes it just plain sucks. here's an example of bad SAP transitions. But my company did it too way back and it was fine.
A Case Study on Hershey’s ERP Implementation Failure: The Importance of Testing and Scheduling - Pemeco Consulting
Imagine waking up one day to find out that your company's supply chain has ground to a halt, making it impossible to fulfill $100 million worth of orders. For Hershey's confectionary manufacturing and distribution operations, this nightmare came true in 1999. Read this case study on Hershey's...
pemeco.com
DanielG165
Member
Disgruntled employee has negative thoughts about their former employer. More news at 11. Isn’t the new head the guy that literally saved the MCC? Dude knows his Halo.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
MS is doing the same mistakes over and over again Gailo Studios is not going to be different
ChorizoPicozo
Member
just like the last one
MayauMiao
Member
I'll take his warnings over Phil Spencer's assurance.
willothedog
Member
Employee who got laid off a year ago by employer holds resentment
BosmerCulter
Neo Member
Isn't it the guy that regret the "great time" of Bonnie Ross or Franck O'Connor ?
Good riddance
Good riddance
Astral Dog
Member
I don't know if they are 'cancer' but it does seem they need an overhaul in managment, my impression is that Halo 5 and Infinite took too long to come out and had mixed reception by fans.
but im not a Halo fan and just played Halo 4 back on xbox 360, it seems the series has the potential to make a bigger impact but its held back ,hopefully the rebranding and engine switch helps them to deliver higher quality games for the fans,they clearly have talent on 343 since Halo 4 was pretty good
but im not a Halo fan and just played Halo 4 back on xbox 360, it seems the series has the potential to make a bigger impact but its held back ,hopefully the rebranding and engine switch helps them to deliver higher quality games for the fans,they clearly have talent on 343 since Halo 4 was pretty good
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
If they had to hard-line the shit performing 343 studio with Hintze in control to get MCC back from the grave then good by me. Well done Hintze and team.
343 by committee is what made Halo shit. Give me the single vision devs to deliver greatness e.g. OG bungie small dev team. IMO Hintze deserves the big shot at the helm, just give resources and creative control to a few key staff, fuck design by committee.
343 by committee is what made Halo shit. Give me the single vision devs to deliver greatness e.g. OG bungie small dev team. IMO Hintze deserves the big shot at the helm, just give resources and creative control to a few key staff, fuck design by committee.
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coffinbirth
Member
"Will Waltz, a former developer who worked as an animator on the Halo franchise for 13 years. 13 years of pure trash"
Hopefully Pierre can use all this salt to help cook up something worthy of the Halo name.
Hopefully Pierre can use all this salt to help cook up something worthy of the Halo name.
ReBurn
Gold Member
Yep, don't burn bridges in such a public way. It never goes away.
LordOfChaos
Member
It's Halo Studios now, so it's not toxic anymore
ShirAhava
Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
Money isn't everything he seems pretty passionate.
Orbital2060
Member
Dude had a posh job
Now hes sucking dick for a dollar
[/spoiler
Now hes sucking dick for a dollar
lh032
I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
Leadership changes from top to bottom. May be coming from department instead of the whole company overall.
Imagine your good reporting manager resigned and comes the awful one
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AMSCD
Member
I think Hookshot is the best new member on NeoGAF. His posts are always on point.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Totally. But hialrious.
At least other companies in industries that have issues or failing products can typically associate that with lackluster quality or a bad price. Also, often the big corporations dominate store shelves with tons of products making it hard for small companies to dig in. Forgotten. Try again. Nothing to fuss about.
Gaming is different. Giant budgets and timelines, big flops, politics, crazy corporate environments, GAAS nickel and diming, studio employees battling gamers on social media, then gaming site "journalists" battling companies on social media, and of course employees badmouthing their own boss, company or leaking confidential memos on Twitter at 9 am.... and probably lots of other hilarious stuff I forgot.
Truly an entertaining industry of immature people.
But give them credit. This industry sure knows how to wrangle up big budgets from big companies or investment companies when no bank would lend them a dime.
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Bernardougf
Member
The burning of money by the whole entertaiment industry in the last 10 years has been something to behold.. is really really impressive how they pass this things by shareholders... I would trully like to see how something like "lucasfilm" justify itself in shareholders meetings. I guess billionaires deal with loss different than I, but it shure wasn't like this in the past
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
It's tech end of the day.
So similar to the dot.com craze 25 years ago, big corporations or venture capitalist funds have deep pockets. All it takes is a couple guys in a board room teasing the bankrollers they got a hit game, piece of tech or e-commerce site that can generate tons of users and revenue - skies the limit - and you'll get eyeballs itching to sign a deal.
Most fail. But the temptation is there. Just got to get lucky as a guy pitching a product the other guys in the room with the money are big time gamblers. You need a room of rich guys who dont want safe and conservative 6% returns. You want tech bros with deep money who are willing to go balls deep either losing it all or hitting the jackpot tripling their return in 5 years when the game finally releases.
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DaciaJC
Gold Member
Good pay and/or benefits? Passion for the series/IP? Plenty of potential reasons.
Bernardougf
Member
Failing ideas and products always existed.. but what we see now is doubling, tripling, quadrupling down on failed ideas... without any real repercutions... its bizarre to describe modern loosing tactics to some CEO of the 90/00
We got this 4 billion dollar franchise with a huge fanbase... ok our idea is to completely change the product, focus on new consumers and antagonize as much as we can old legacy costumers.
After billions lost...
I have a new idea.. to keep using the same method but this time with even more antagonizing.
Shareholders: ok do it.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Probably because most shareholders dont care. They sell for a loss and move on, instead of trying to oust management submitting proxy votes. And for a lot of companies upper management has lots of votes too if they got tons of shares so it might be impossible to vote them out unless everyone else coordinates an organized effort to do so.
It's oddly counterintuitive because many media companies like UBI, WB, Paramount, Disney and surely more have had stock prices tank so bad over the years, you'd think based on pure logic of shareholder value, sales, bonuses and hitting options strike prices, they'd do what it takes to make more sales and profits to pump up the stock. Not bomb it down with junky products.
But who knows. Maybe a lot of these people have such deep rooted views, they want to go all out with the messaging instead of business success. lol
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Feel Like I'm On 42
Member
They've already proven 10x over that they are in fact, cancer. How much evidence do we need? They've done so much damage to the franchise with what has happened with Infinite. Microsoft upper leadership is awful too. We never should've been in this situation with Halo to begin with.
-Infinite campaign sucks with its barren world and story despite being in development for so long
-graphics debacle and 1 year delay hurt Series X launch- final game still looks like a last gen game after 1 year delqy
-"10 year plan" had the towel thrown in after what? 2 years? They could've at least stuck to adding a campaign expansion to make it a respectable game and gotten 5 years out of 10
-Multiplayer was an unmitigated disaster as we all know despite having some of the best mechanics and controls of any Halo. Making it Free to Play and forcing CrossPlay onto console players that have been the primary audience for over 20 years was incredibly disrespectful AND damaging to the trust people have.
Only reason why 343 escaped total disaster is because of MS paying off youtubers and reviewers (only explanation I can think of for why review scores were positive). I may catch flak for that "pay off" comment but come on the campaign was more of a long proof of concept than an actual Halo game. It had no variety, empty world with the same type of base skirmishes throughout, none of the set pieces that Halo games are known for, and was padded to hell in the last 5 hours of tedious corridors. We know now why the game was so unfinished as management issues, the new engine, and outsourcing of development is well established. They had no time to fill it with meaningful activitues, missions, biomes and cutscenes ...the things that made other Halos great games...
IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
This.
Very unprofessional behaviour. Vent privately to your friends and family, but not publicly on LinkedIn.
Bernardougf
Member
I think thats the only logical conclusion... even the shareholders are supporting the DEI/WOKE craziness... maybe the backend dollars make everything worth it and the losses are not that great. Who knows
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Linkedin is typically a very clean and professional site. It'd very rare you get someone venting like this. His post mortem warning post is something suitable for a Twitter rant.
I guess he's trying to do god's work warning people on a career site. But it never looks good publicly badmouthing prior companies. Then again, video game employees seem to have a great time on social media telling the world about stuff. So it's surprising, but not that surprising.