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Sigh...Signs of development hell has surfaced for 343 Industries. I'm moving on.

Jigsaah

Jigsaah

Gold Member
So I was really excited for Halo Infinite as some of you may have been aware. At this point, I'm pretty much done. I really hope this doesn't affect the end result of the game, but at this point getting hyped about Halo doesn't seem smart. I'll be pleasantly surprised if it ends up being awesome. I want Halo to be great, but some of the comments from these ex-employees are really disheartening.

Here's the video, Courtesy of ReviewTechUSA.



Sorry if old.
 
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Nikana

Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
I dont think its a coincidence that this is happening after the implementation of a new engine as well. A lot of these issues sound similar to what happened with EA and everything moving to Frostbite. Code bases being awful, tools not working the way they need to, features being stuck for months.

That being said, Since when is this guy reliable? First I have heard of him having any kind of contacts.
 
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Kev Kev

Kev Kev

Member
lol if you are falling for this then you are a fucking moron.

OP, ive seen you post enough to know youre not a dumby. why are you falling for this shit? and why are you so determined to take a shit on halo/xbox every chance you get? ive ignored over 4 pages of topics since the halo infinite reveal and users like you jsut keep trying to get at it.
giphy.gif
 
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VincentMatts

VincentMatts

Member
Kagero said:
My guess is probably because corporate bullshit gets in the way.

but most rikery white peeepohh rack disciprine. I kid I kid. MS don’t know how to leave devs alone. Look at thier history.
Click to expand...

Its not that. MS have gone out of their way to leave all their new purchases alone for as long as possible. They let them do their thing and dont interfere anymore. Theyve said this multiple times recently.

In 343s case, this was a studio built by MS from the ground up and the people in charge are, as far as im concerned, questionable.

The other studios they bought already had a positive studio "culture" by working together for a long time. Its actually much easier to get success by buying them rather than building them from scratch since all of that is already embedded in the experienced studios.

Although not 'confirmed', 343 does seem to have issues. But keep in mind, every company will have people who are unhappy, especially contractors. So lets not jump to conclusions just yet.
 
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T

Teslerum

Member
There's definitely issues and some truth to it, but at the same time its GlassDoor reviews. Unless you actually hear/know both sides everything needs to be taken with quite a bit of salt.
 
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G

Garjon

Member
Monkeygourmet said:
Why is that all studios apart from Sony / Nintendo studios rack discerprin
Click to expand...
LOL you say this like Retro Studios have made a game in the past 5 years. Or that Naughty Dog haven't fully restarted development on games before. This is something that just happens with game development, projects just don't turn out like you expect and have to be cut back or in some cases, abandoned altogether. It's not even new, Resident Evil 2 famously had to be completely restarted from scratch.

The issue here is that Microsoft really wants/needs Halo to be ready for launch so they're going to have Halo ready for launch no matter what. I feel for the staff who will be under immense pressure to get the game done by November regardless of how reasonable that is.
 
Bryank75

Bryank75

Banned
I think a few weeks back I made a comment here about rumors of a lot of shit going on there, staff turnover etc...
 
Rikkori

Rikkori

Member
Makes sense from what we've seen from 343i. Like I've said before, mega-corps like MS are too big & bloated, so their studios will be like that as well and overall will not be nimble or adaptable. I've been in companies like that when I was starting out and I learned my lesson early: if no one has direct control & responsibility over the company then it will end up in a FFA with varying levels of success for their projects. That's why I refuse to work for corpos that aren't privately owned, or even better - for myself directly. Diffusion of responsibility is honestly the worst thing that can hit any organisation.
 
M

Michael Hawk

Member
I believe him.

They lost both the creative director and lead producer during development, they're positioning the game as "a platform that evolves over time", and the gameplay reveal featured shockingly outdated graphics and unremarkable gameplay.

It's obvious that something isn't working out behind the scenes. The best course of action would be to delay the game and ship it when it's not a hot mess, but are Microsoft willing to do that?
 
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Vawn said:
Have you seen the pictures of their staff members? This isn't overly surprising to hear.
Click to expand...

First thing I thought if when I read about the "too much passing of the buck and not taking responsibility," was that of hammering in "diversity" mind virus culture with Bonnie Ross and this studio. Have you ever seen those who subscribe to that ideology in current year, take any responsibility and not pass blame on other people, places, or things?

Stinkles is the human embodiment of that shit on Ree all day everyday, for years.
 
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VincentMatts

VincentMatts

Member
Bryank75 said:
I think a few weeks back I made a comment here about rumors of a lot of shit going on there, staff turnover etc...
Click to expand...

Turnover happens regularly pretty much everywhere. Its just not news 90% of the time. Theres new people at my company literally multiple times a month, and im very happy where i work.
 
O

OptimistPrime

Member
Employer reviews are much more likely to be made by people leaving a company (either by choice or through being fired). They are useful but should not be considered representative of the typical employee experience.

There’s probably grains of truth throughout, but it’s almost certainly not as doom and gloom as it’s being presented.
 
Bryank75

Bryank75

Banned
VincentMatts said:
Turnover happens regularly pretty much everywhere. Its just not news 90% of the time. Theres new people at my company literally multiple times a month, and im very happy where i work.
Click to expand...
It wasn't to spread shit or anything, it was just a rumor I heard on youtube... can't even remember exactly what channel now.
It's an awesome feeling to love your job and be happy at work and I am glad that you are in that situation.
 
Jigsaah

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Kev Kev said:
lol if you are falling for this then you are a fucking moron.

OP, ive seen you post enough to know youre not a dumby. why are you falling for this shit? and why are you so determined to take a shit on halo/xbox every chance you get? ive ignored over 4 pages of topics since the halo infinite reveal and users like you jsut keep trying to get at it.
giphy.gif
Click to expand...
Trust me, I'm not determined to shit on Halo, but I'm a fair guy, and I know how I felt watching that demo. To say I was disappointed is a bit of an understatement. Now if development hell is a real possibility, even the threat of it's existence is enough reason for me to lower my expectations.

I should be clear, I'm not looking for stories shitting on Halo and 343. I'm finding them just going through my youtube feed. I'm watching them, and it doesn't seem glaringly obvious that it's true or not true. I post this here just because I'm sharing my personal sentiment about the situation with people I like to converse with on this forum.

I guess what I'm saying is I'd rather have low expectations and for 343 to blow my mind later, than for me to damage control what I've seen so far, only to have to eat crow later.

Just in case it's something people have considered, I'm not a fanboy of any type. I just love games. Halo is a game I love, and so far what I've seen is disappointing. That's all.
 
Patterson

Patterson

Member
smithg5 said:
Employer reviews are much more likely to be made by people leaving a company (either by choice or through being fired). They are useful but should not be considered representative of the typical employee experience.

There’s probably grains of truth throughout, but it’s almost certainly not as doom and gloom as it’s being presented.
Click to expand...
I would agree with you if they were short messages that looked like they were written from a place of angry emotion, but these were thoughtfully written essays that went into great detail and even offered constructive criticism.
 
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VincentMatts

VincentMatts

Member
Bryank75 said:
It wasn't to spread shit or anything, it was just a rumor I heard on youtube... can't even remember exactly what channel now.
It's an awesome feeling to love your job and be happy at work and I am glad that you are in that situation.
Click to expand...

Yeah man, took so long to find this job too.

As for 343, ill give them the benefit of doubt and see how the game actually turns out. If its another H5, i say bring down the hammer. Theyve had enough chances.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
343i must be in real trouble. Those critiques are 100% textbook issues on software factory organizations that fail catastrophically.

1. Management not pushing on corporate imposed deadlines without getting estimates form the development team

2. Usage of custom tools that are left orphaned once the original talent moves on.

3. Over reliance on contractors that introduce quality issues.

Halo Infinite’s launch is fucked. I’ll be playing Cyberpunk while I wait for a couple patches. I am not touching the original release unless I hear great things about it.
 
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Jigsaah

Jigsaah

Gold Member
M1chl said:
I don't think that this men could be trusted, he basically make videos off the tweets, something like Quartering. So...
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I don't really like the Quartering either to be honest. But if the guy has some sources to back up what he's saying, then you pay attention to the source. I believe the complaints from ex-employees may have some truth to them.
 
Thabass

Thabass

Member
I have a friend that's at 343 and I've never had the impression from that from him. I think this YouTuber is getting misinformed.
 
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M1chl

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Jigsaah said:
I don't really like the Quartering either to be honest. But if the guy has some sources to back up what he's saying, then you pay attention to the source. I believe the complaints from ex-employees may have some truth to them.
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Sure, it's quite apparent that something is up, but wouldn't it be reported by Gaming media, Schreier, Twitter (+million retweets and craig memes) etc? This seems like a reach of RDNA 3 level.
 
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