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New Studio "First Strike Games" founded by multiple former 343i Multiplayer Leads

A

Akai__

Member
Seems like 343i lost a coupple people, that had some roles in the Multiplayer development.

Kevin Franklin:
As Multiplayer Design Director, Kevin shipped Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, Microsoft’s largest and most extensive investment in multiplayer ever, featuring a 24 player PVE/PVP multiplayer mode, and a 4v4 multiplayer Arena experience built for eSports.
Click to expand...

Brian Lemon:
Brian enjoyed 7 years at Ensemble Studios working on Age of Empires and Halo Wars. His most recent position at 343 Industries was Lead Multiplayer Producer on Halo 5: Guardians.
Click to expand...

Doug Barnes:
A software developer with a passion for multiplayer games, Doug led the engineering efforts on the 4v4 eSports multiplayer modes of Halo 5: Guardians on the Xbox One. After launch, Doug led the multiplayer games-as-a-service team focusing on monthly releases to boost player population and engagement.
Click to expand...
---

Jeff Hilbert (former Founder and Co-CEO of DDM , www.ddmagency.com) joined them, too:
Jeff is recognized as one of the game industry's top business development executives and has been involved in securing in excess of $750,000,000 in capital for development studios. He has extensive experience structuring Publishing and Distribution deals having worked on projects with the top Publishers and Distributors in the world.
Click to expand...

Website: http://www.firststrikegames.com/

What do you guys think? Huge loss for 343i? I'm actually interested to know what they are up to and if the Halo MP will see some significant changes again.
 
A

Akai__

Member
14 years of experience (Halo 4 & 5, Gears of War 3, Age of Empires 3, Shenmue 2, etc.). Seems like a good count for a new formed studio.

leeh said:
Now I'm just worried that the people who led the only great thing about Halo 5 have left 343i.
Click to expand...

Kevin Franklin was the guy who got all the blame for Halo 4's Infinity Slayer mode. From the descriptions, it also seems like he was the main guy behind Warzone. Not sure, though.
 
V

valkillmore

Member
Fucking ate Halo 4 multipalyer up. Loved it. Played H4 online more than any other Halo since Halo: CE for PC. Halo 5 multi is solid too but I don't own a Bone.

I hope they slay.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
Since Halo 5 MP is the bees knees, and these guys had a part in it, I am somewhat interested to see what they start making.
 
B

Blueblur1

Member
I never got a clear understanding of what Kevin actually accomplished at 343. He took a beating from the fans for being the lead on Halo 4's multiplayer (with the assumption that he thought that transforming Halo MP into something else was a good idea). But good luck to him in his new endeavor.
 
Estocolmo

Estocolmo

Member
Im a Halo fan since the first game came out and I think that Halo 5 has the best multiplayer experience yet. Great talent and I'm sure their coming game is going to be good.
 
A

Akai__

Member
Seems like more things are happening at 343i.

- Brad Welch (design director for campaign and sandbox for Halo 5), also moved to Visceral games.
- Frankie got promoted to Franchise Creative Director.

BruceLeeRoy said:
Well Halo 5 is kind of ugly.

H5 is the best mp of any Halo game since 3. I will follow whatever these guys do.
Click to expand...

It's only ugly when it actually comes to the human/UNSC art design, which the MP maps really suffer from. The art design on Genesis and Sanghelios is something I always wanted and I hope 343i adds a coupple maps that have that art design.
 
R

Raylan

Banned
Interesting. New First-Person-Shooter IP?
Good. It's time! I'm bored from all these COD, BF, Halo, Killzone, etc. IP's.
 
C

CloudyTuba

Member
That sounds like a lot of key, important people all at the same time. I wonder if there was some bullshit behind the scenes and they decided to bail together.
 
Doug Heffernan

Doug Heffernan

Member
Akai__ said:
Seems like more things are happening at 343i.

- Brad Welch (design director for campaign and sandbox for Halo 5), also moved to Visceral games.
- Frankie got promoted to Franchise Creative Director.



It's only ugly when it actually comes to the human/UNSC art design, which the MP maps really suffer from. The art design on Genesis and Sanghelios is something I always wanted and I hope 343i adds a coupple maps that have that art design.
Click to expand...

Congrats Frankie!
 
J

jelly

Member
Best of luck, always good to have a new FPS, hope they do something new that isn't just for maximum micro transactions.

Congrats Frankie, fingers crossed you have good ideas and stories. Less galactic consequence and toning down the armada to help.
 
M

Magwik

Banned
Caipirinha said:
Uhhh so 343 is downsizing?

Lawd Microsoft are moving quickly on their "new vision" for Xbox right now.
Click to expand...

JqLP5wZ.gif
 
S

Sydle

Member
Good for Kevin. Seems like he always wanted to turn Halo MP into something else, so now he'll get a lot of freedom to do what he wants.

Looking forward to seeing what this team makes.
 
I

ironcreed

Banned
Microsoft Game Studios is looking weak as piss right now. But I wish these guys success and will keep an eye on what they are doing.
 
ElRenoRaven

ElRenoRaven

Gold Member
Oh wow that's a big loss for 343. Halo 5's multiplayer was a huge step up from Halo 4 and a return to form. Shame to see them lose those guys.
 
tfur

tfur

Member
Electing to jump ship means you think you can do much better.
I wonder what the climate is like at these MS owned studios. Do they feel a need to jump ship?
 
7

7DollarHagane

Banned
That's pretty telling. I thought halo 5 was a great multiplayer game but a horrendous single player. Losing some of the leads from the multiplayer side has to hurt.

I really think it's time to give halo a rest. A good 3-4 years and focus on content for halo 5, and bring it to PC.
 
S

Synth

Member
pizzacat said:
too bad at the misstep in shenmue
Click to expand...

Don't make me hurt you.

Fucking Need for Speed Carbon is in that list, and you're gonna call out Shenmue? What?

Plus, it's the OG Xbox version of a game that was already created for Dreamcast... so they didn't really make Shenmue either way.
 
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