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[Draugoth]

Via WCFFTech
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The Halo series developer 343 Industries will only supervise the development of future entries in the series, as Microsoft is reportedly not confident in 343 internal developing anymore.

• In 2023 and 2024 343i internal employees were cut down from around 500 to less than 280.
• The internal 343i communications and marketing teams were cut and now it's directly MS which manages them (some members of the old teams were transferred to the MS ones)
• The reliance on outsourcing increased as MS is not confident in 343 internal developing anymore *ouch*
• So for the next Halo projects 343 will just work on the Concept and Pre-Production phases (along with the "Lore check") while actual Production would be done by other SH, only supervised by 343 (similar to what done with Halo Wars 2 with Creative Assembly)
• 2 new big Halo projects in the works right now (most probably Halo CE Remake and Halo "7"), both in Pre-Production phase and the sooner release not until 2026 at least. One of them, probably Halo "7", will have a much higher players' number MP (so probably including the "Tatanka" MP project legacy made for 100+ players and in the works at Certain Affinity, initially planned for Infinite)
• Only 30% of current 343i is actually developing game contents, while all the rest are project management, producers and business roles
• Budget is now much more controlled by MS (which made new hires slower and more difficult as one of the results)
• Halo Infinite made a lot of money but still didn't meet MS targets for it. Now on "life support" after releasing already contractualized contents with external suppliers, with remaining support on Forge contents only

Bathrobe Spartan, who has proven reliable regarding the popular series in the past, recently revealed some new information on the franchise's future and its developer. According to the report, based on information received from current and former 343 Industries employees, the studio was downsized in 2023 and 2024, going from around 500 employees to less than 280. Internal communications and marketing teams were also cut, with Microsoft now managing them.

As Microsoft is no longer confident in 343 Industries' internal development, future entries in the series will be developed by other studios, with the series developer focusing only on the concept and pre-production phases and supervising development.

Regarding future Halo games, Bathrobe Spartan revealed that two big projects are currently in the pre-production phase. One of them will feature multiplayer with a much higher number. What these projects are is unknown, but it is being speculated they are a Halo CE Remake and the next main entry in the series, the latter probably the project featuring the aforementioned multiplayer mode.

 

[diffusionx]

MS is obviously right to lack confidence in 343, but 280 people on the payroll to not make videogames is still pretty nuts.

 

[skyfinch]

Since Playground is working on Fable, Halo should be given to Turn 10. Give 343 some Crash Bandicoot.

 

[Mr Moose]

They are lucky to still be around.

 

[adamsapple]

Certain Affinity has been low-key working on the franchise for a while, they deserve a shot to make a full fledged title.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Give 343 some crash .

Fixed.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

MS is obviously right to lack confidence in 343, but 280 people on the payroll to not make videogames is still pretty nuts.

Crazy.

The Canadian office I work at has office staff somewhere around 150-200. That includes all staff required to do all office functions for the entire country. And our annual sales blows away any Halo game, probably even beats a big selling Halo game back in the day.

So WTF can 280 office staff at 343 be doing every year? That's a lot of overseers when the starting count was 500.

 

[GymWolf]

Noice, now do the same with gears/coalition.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I'm sure myself and a few others were saying this was gonna happen like two years ago. Welp, here it is.

Guess they will just ensure lore is accurate and gunplay feel is like Halo. Because almost anything else, I think the studio actually developing the game would be better at.

Noice, now do the same with gears/coalition.

They were never in nearly as bad a spot as 343i IMO. However, I did think they were going to (or that it would've been in best interests to) remake the first game or two, then move forward from there.

Seems like they're doing a prequel which, long as it's in the spirit of the original trilogy, should turn out quite well.

Certain Affinity has been low-key working on the franchise for a while, they deserve a shot to make a full fledged title.

They were working on the now-scrapped Battle Royale for Halo Infinite. They're probably among the top picks to handle a new mainline Halo entry.

 

[skyfinch]

I love the direction Microsoft is taking. Bold, unpredictable, pure unadulterated confusion. Keeps us gamers guessing so we don't get bored with gaming....bored with life. My ex wife did the same when confronted about her relationship with my neighbor.

Now I live in my parent's spare room with my Series S. My parents would have never guessed that 45 years later, their only child would be living with them again!

I fucking love being a gamer!

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

This was heavily covered months ago, this isn't really anything new.

 

[diffusionx]

Crazy.

The Canadian office I work at has office staff somewhere around 150-200. That includes all staff required to do all office functions for the entire country. And our annual sales blows away any Halo game, probably even beats a big selling Halo game back in the day.

So WTF can 280 office staff at 343 be doing every year? That's a lot of overseers when the starting count was 500.

The bloat these companies have is insane. Even the massive cuts that make sites like Polygon piss and shit their pants in anger don't really come close.

343 could operate with, like, 50 people, max, if they are overseeing. A few PMs/producers, a few people to keep the lore straight, a couple of community managers, even a full writing staff, I don't know how you get to 280.

 

[BennyBlanco]

They couldn’t get the job done, why have them oversee anything? Mindblowing that Tango actually produced good games and was a pretty small team got the axe, but 343 get to oversee the Halo IP and not make videogames.

At least S Stinkles got shitcanned

 

[GymWolf]

I'm sure myself and a few others were saying this was gonna happen like two years ago. Welp, here it is.

Guess they will just ensure lore is accurate and gunplay feel is like Halo. Because almost anything else, I think the studio actually developing the game would be better at.



They were never in nearly as bad a spot as 343i IMO. However, I did think they were going to (or that it would've been in best interests to) remake the first game or two, then move forward from there.

Seems like they're doing a prequel which, long as it's in the spirit of the original trilogy, should turn out quite well.



They were working on the now-scrapped Battle Royale for Halo Infinite. They're probably among the top picks to handle a new mainline Halo entry.

Oh i don't know, i was barely capable of finishing g4 without costantly thinking about a double suicide (for me and my crashed balls) and didn't get far with g5 and bailed out from that one entirely.

Personally i find them on the same exact level as 343, i don't care if the gears have sold more.

People now suddently believe in coalition because they are making a gritty prequel with the original cast, if 343 get rid of the new enemies and make a prequel of halo where you meet the covenent for the first time the people would be on board aswell, but i'm not gonna forget what these people made until now, my memory is not that short.

 

[Pelta88]

About time.

 

[Shubh_C63]

Worst managed studio in history ?

The leadership and the developers themselves were the problem. Now they outsourced the developing part and but the overseeing part still lie on the team that royally messed up.
Next Halo is bound to be better and of AA nature.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

"Only 30% of current 343i is actually developing game contents, while all the rest are project management, producers and business roles"


This is fucking wild.

 

[Imtjnotu]

Certain Affinity has been low-key working on the franchise for a while, they deserve a shot to make a full fledged title.

Says who?

 

[SlimySnake]

• Only 30% of current 343i is actually developing game contents, while all the rest are project management, producers and business roles

lol classic Microsoft.

this is true for all the bloated tech corporations but MS has always loved their project managers and business execs over actual talent and engineers. I am sure people will still blame the 50 women they hired or DEI practices.

 

[YOU PC BRO?!]

Didn't Phil proclaim 343 to be the most diverse studio ever? What happened Phil? Isn't diversity our strength any more?

 

[Puscifer]

Noice, now do the same with gears/coalition.

We need Cliffy B back, period. Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden are also great examples of what happens when the key figure leaves

 

[Magic Carpet]

So I guess my plan to hire a bunch of Bouncers to come in and physically throw them out the nearest window isn't happening.
Film and document the firing and final walk of shame out to their cars shoe polished with obsenities.

 

[ResilientBanana]

MS is obviously right to lack confidence in 343, but 280 people on the payroll to not make videogames is still pretty nuts.

They have other rolls among other facets of entertainment. Events, Pro-Gaming, Toys, Motion Picture, and basically ruining everything anyone ever loved about the series. I'd love to a see a Certain Affinity Halo game.

 

[Sybrix]

So the consensus is every Halo since Bungie left has sucked?

Been saying this for years. Halo 4,5 and Infinite are so poor compared to it's predecessors.

Infinite was definatly going in the right direction but executed so poorly.

 

[Bloobs]

 

[intbal]

Several of those Activision studios used to be great FPS developers. They've been doing nothing but COD junk for years. Let them take over Halo.

 

[King Dazzar]

Its good that they at least recognised there's a problem following Infinite. But the solution doesn't exactly come across as cohesive and of a top tier team in the making. But hey the project management I've been involved with differs a lot from game development. Though I'd suspect MS are unique in how they manage things... and not in a good way.

I wish them well with all of it though, we all deserve a great Halo game or two.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Thought we heard this a long time back

 

[Bloobs]

Several of those Activision studios used to be great FPS developers. They've been doing nothing but COD junk for years. Let them take over Halo.

Raven software

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Oh i don't know, i was barely capable of finishing g4 without costantly thinking about a double suicide (for me and my crashed balls) and didn't get far with g5 and bailed out from that one entirely.

Personally i find them on the same exact level as 343, i don't care if the gears have sold more.

People now suddently believe in coalition because they are making a gritty prequel with the original cast, if 343 get rid of the new enemies and make a prequel of halo where you meet the covenent for the first time the people would be on board aswell, but i'm not gonna forget what these people made until now, my memory is not that short.

Well, I know Gears 5 didn't set the world on fire with some of the narrative and thematic changes, so I'm not going to pretend The Coalition have been spotless in comparison to 343i. I'm just saying they haven't had as big of drops in their Gears games quality-wise as 343i has had in the Halo games.

And, they never had a disaster on the level approaching a Halo Infinite. MS trusting Coalition to handle Gears while that same trust in 343i has faded for Halo, does speak some volumes.

Thought we heard this a long time back

Was probably just fringe speculation and rumors at that time. I mean some of us were saying this would end up happening after the honeymoon for Halo Infinite ceased.

But if you were saying this back then, you mostly got attacked or laughed down at.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Since Playground is working on Fable, Halo should be given to Turn 10. Give 343 some Crash Bandicoot.

Turn 10 is another shitshow like 343i at the moment

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Dude is out here straight plagiarizing posts from other forums..

 

[Genesis Knight]

Thought we heard this a long time back

Yeah we'd already heard rumors to this effect.

I will say, shuttering 343i entirely would be bad optics for Microsoft. What they're doing here seems like a smart way to do that in essence while leaving 343i alive on paper. The name remains, but it just becomes an extension of the go-to-market / business side of Microsoft. 343i as the developer of Halo 4 / 5 / Infinite ceases to exist and they can explore farming Halo out as a franchise to other developers.

 

[Caffeine]

i'm still waiting for their epic halo game.

 

[GymWolf]

Well, I know Gears 5 didn't set the world on fire with some of the narrative and thematic changes, so I'm not going to pretend The Coalition have been spotless in comparison to 343i. I'm just saying they haven't had as big of drops in their Gears games quality-wise as 343i has had in the Halo games.

And, they never had a disaster on the level approaching a Halo Infinite. MS trusting Coalition to handle Gears while that same trust in 343i has faded for Halo, does speak some volumes.



Was probably just fringe speculation and rumors at that time. I mean some of us were saying this would end up happening after the honeymoon for Halo Infinite ceased.

But if you were saying this back then, you mostly got attacked or laughed down at.

But i do think that gears had a big drop in quality, i think halo 4 is better than gears 4 and gears 5 is not really that much better than h5 or infinite.


The gameplay is copy paste so even if it feels extremely stale to me it's still fun for many people, hard to fuck that.

 

[Punished Miku]

Dude is out here straight plagiarizing posts from other forums..

It really doesn't matter. No one here posts new threads. A copied post is better than nothing.

 

[NuclearDiarrhea]

Guess they will just ensure lore is accurate and gunplay feel is like Halo.

I wouldn't even trust those asshats with the lore anymore. They've contributed nothing but layers upon layers of convoluted bullshit since Bungie left, sometimes even contradicting some of the lore Bungie laid out. I wouldn't trust them to untangle this web of bullshit.

 

[mitch1971]

MS is obviously right to lack confidence in 343, but 280 people on the payroll to not make videogames is still pretty nuts.

Don't worry, gamepass hikes are covering it.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

It really doesn't matter. No one here posts new threads.

I resent that.

 

[Madserb2023]

It's a shame because the core gameplay of infinite was great and arguably the best in the series. All they had to do was just support the game but instead they just completely messed up the opportunity and let the game flounder. To be honest, at this point they shouldn't even advise.

 

[jcorb]

I'd started playing Destiny 2 again recently, and part of me actually started thinking, "I wonder what Halo would look like if it went for a similar looter-shooter/RPG route?"

I haven't kept up with the Halo series *really* since Reach, and briefly tried Infinite. There's something about the world-building and general "vibe" of those earlier Halo games that Bungie seemed to carry over to the very start of Destiny 1, but since they've kind of lost. Halo, in particular, felt like it was probably made by American history buffs, it just had a certain "vibe" that really set it apart. At the same time, it also felt like it was able to have "fun" with itself, and I think particularly in today's climate, people might really latch onto a series not trying to get bogged down by "serious/political themes".

Still though, kind of a bummer for 343, as it sounds like they've been gutted. I was never on the "bash Microsoft" bandwagon (well, fuck MS itself, but I thought their gaming division was doing alright), but they sure seem to be making a lot of shitty decisions that are affect both their games and the people who make them. It genuinely feels like the industry is starting to collapse (or at least, traditional AAA development).

 

[LordCBH]

Better idea: just shut 343 down. I don’t want them supervising shit.

 

[coffinbirth]

So many untrue things in that mess, I don't even know where to begin.

First of all, the layoffs were in 2022. Support staff/contracted employees were last year....because contracts. Seems like ole' Bathrobe Spartan, that bastion of news-worthy rambling, just looked at some Linkedin profiles and called it a day.
Bullshit

When Bonnie Ross left, her responsibilities were split between three other heads of the studio. They are managing the studio... not "Microsoft directly" lmao. Yep, Satya and Phil in the trenches making header file changes and signing off on art direction, etc... Microsoft directly laid waste to half their staff, reshuffled leadership and probably now have guns pointed at their heads, sure, but beyond "you are making this game" I have my doubts how hands on Microsoft are even capable of being.
Bullshit

Three other fully staffed studios and multiple other support studios were contracted for Infinite... and now the suggestion is there will be MORE? I'm pretty sure the move to drop Slipspace Engine and move to Unreal Engine was to cut down on the amount of support studios needed, not add to it.
Bullshit

Project Tatanka was canned(as a Halo project) when they essentially pulled the plug on Infinite. Rumor is Creative Assembly is taking that and making a new IP with it, but that's a lot of unfounded fuckery. Schreier did say it was cancelled like a year ago though.
Probably Bullshit

If 343i are merely there for preproduction and art, why are they hiring project leads right now?

Meanwhile, in ACTUAL news on the subject, they just hired a new cinematic director literally yesterday.

To be clear, 343i are a fucking joke and I'd much prefer they were shuttered and the IP handed over to someone fucking hungry...but this just sounds like masturbatory rumor bullshit stew.

 

[Dacvak]

I’ve become kind of resigned to the fact that a lot of the beloved franchises I grew up with are now soulless, homogenized shells of what they used to be. Scaling up and diversifying is the exact opposite of what we need to do. Instead, take these franchises, and give them to small teams of 50-100 dedicated devs. Let them exercise their vision the way they want. Put pressure on individuals to carry the burden of quality, and rely less on teams and committees.

At least I still have From, Nintendo, and indie devs I guess.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

But i do think that gears had a big drop in quality, i think halo 4 is better than gears 4 and gears 5 is not really that much better than h5 or infinite.


The gameplay is copy paste so even if it feels extremely stale to me it's still fun for many people, hard to fuck that.

Sounds like you might be one of the more extreme cases of those dissatisfied with post-Epic Gears; while a lot of people do consider the Coalition Gears games inferior, I think overall perception for them is still among the majority is better than the post-Bungie Halo games.

Like on a 1-10 scale, if the Epic Gears games were a 10 then most would say the Coalition Gears games are 7-8. But if the Bungie Halo games were a 10, most would say the 343i Halo games are a 5-6.

So basically, most (not saying you, but others) would have the modern Gears games in higher regard than modern Halo, even if they're both inferior to the peak of those IPs.

I wouldn't even trust those asshats with the lore anymore. They've contributed nothing but layers upon layers of convoluted bullshit since Bungie left, sometimes even contradicting some of the lore Bungie laid out. I wouldn't trust them to untangle this web of bullshit.

Sounds like they have a Lucasfilm problem

 

[GymWolf]

Sounds like you might be one of the more extreme cases of those dissatisfied with post-Epic Gears; while a lot of people do consider the Coalition Gears games inferior, I think overall perception for them is still among the majority is better than the post-Bungie Halo games.

Like on a 1-10 scale, if the Epic Gears games were a 10 then most would say the Coalition Gears games are 7-8. But if the Bungie Halo games were a 10, most would say the 343i Halo games are a 5-6.

So basically, most (not saying you, but others) would have the modern Gears games in higher regard than modern Halo, even if they're both inferior to the peak of those IPs.



Sounds like they have a Lucasfilm problem

i think people liked g5 more than me but i think g4 is really considered around h4 quality wise tbh.

H4 wasn't considered trash until recent times.

 

[nemiroff]

That's what most of us said they should do (dissolve 343 and give Halo to other studios) after Halo 4.

 

[Brigandier]

Supervising is a funny way to say they will be watching and learning what they do wrong ‍

 

[M1chl]

Didn't Phil proclaim 343 to be the most diverse studio ever? What happened Phil? Isn't diversity our strength any more?

MS HR dep. can be diverse as much as they want