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Halo Infinite: 343's Statement Runs Against Deep Cuts in Halo Development Team

Pelta88

Member
TLDR: IGN sources state that 343 will not be sole developer when the dust settles.

"IGN has learned that significant cuts have been made to 343's Halo development team. One former 343 employee impacted by the layoffs estimated about a quarter of 343's staff was impacted, although that's not a firm statistic. We've also learned that around 30 people were let go from 343's art department alone, with former employees saying 343 Industries was hit "hard with positions impacted across all disciplines."

Meanwhile, at least one senior-level source with knowledge of 343's internal workings, but who is no longer with the studio, has claimed to IGN that it is being reduced to to publishing team. However, based on conversations that IGN has had with knowledgeable sources, the situation at 343 appears to be ongoing, and there is a growing — if unconfirmed — conviction that 343 will no longer be Halo's sole developer when it's settled."
 
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TLDR: IGN sources state that 343 will not be sole developer when the dust settles.

"IGN has learned that significant cuts have been made to 343's Halo development team. One former 343 employee impacted by the layoffs estimated about a quarter of 343's staff was impacted, although that's not a firm statistic. We've also learned that around 30 people were let go from 343's art department alone, with former employees saying 343 Industries was hit "hard with positions impacted across all disciplines."

Meanwhile, at least one senior-level source with knowledge of 343's internal workings, but who is no longer with the studio, has claimed to IGN that it is being reduced to to publishing team. However, based on conversations that IGN has had with knowledgeable sources, the situation at 343 appears to be ongoing, and there is a growing — if unconfirmed — conviction that 343 will no longer be Halo's sole developer when it's settled."

Cuts at this scale are often a precursor for studios folding, but they simply want to time the closures better.

Obviously it's been a rough week for Microsoft and they don't want to compound that by closing 343 and putting the brand in jeopardy. They'll probably announce that another studio is working on it in conjunction with 343 and at some point in that cycle they'll say that 343 has been closed or repurposed.

The last thing Microsoft PR wants to do is signal to consumers that Xbox is in trouble and then people stop buying consoles altogether. That's what happened with the Dreamcast. People lost all confidence to the point where after PS2 launched Dreamcast actually dropped in price lower than the PS1 and the PS1 was still outselling it.

At that point, you're done in consoles.
 

FireFly

Member
TLDR: IGN sources state that 343 will not be sole developer when the dust settles.

"IGN has learned that significant cuts have been made to 343's Halo development team. One former 343 employee impacted by the layoffs estimated about a quarter of 343's staff was impacted, although that's not a firm statistic. We've also learned that around 30 people were let go from 343's art department alone, with former employees saying 343 Industries was hit "hard with positions impacted across all disciplines."

Meanwhile, at least one senior-level source with knowledge of 343's internal workings, but who is no longer with the studio, has claimed to IGN that it is being reduced to to publishing team. However, based on conversations that IGN has had with knowledgeable sources, the situation at 343 appears to be ongoing, and there is a growing — if unconfirmed — conviction that 343 will no longer be Halo's sole developer when it's settled."
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343 was never the sole developer because Certain Affinity is working on Battle Royale and they were collaborating with the Russian studio Sperasoft on the maps. And according to Mint Blitz, the majority of the cuts came from the campaign team.

These sensationalistic threads based on speculation are really tiring.
 
Exactly this, the game makes money just no where the amount MS had in mind, plus its taken 343 an incredibly long time to fix, look how long it took them to fix master chief collection
How much did the game cost to make? It's profitable plus opportunity costs?

Yeah if I just spent billions buying up developers I would take the best and put them on my biggest ip. Just makes sense.
Infinity Ward is their best, but their biggest IP would be CoD. You keep IW on CoD and maybe have Treyarch take a shot at Halo and see if they can save it.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
It actually still has alot of hardcore fans that buy weekly microtransactions on a daily basis
I don't think that is the case at all. Most of the players have left the game. This is on Steam.
q7zWwo3.jpg


Even on Xbox, the game ranks on #22 on the most played games list, behind games like Red Dead Redemption 2 (which released in 2018) and just above Dead by Daylight.

Considering they also had to gut 343i, it is pretty clear to see that the game didn't meet expectations and was, indeed, a commercial failure.
 

Gudji

Member
Halo needs a complete reboot done by other studio than 343 they just don't have what it takes. Anyways its hard to compete against all the games that are in the market and new ones that are coming in with new ideas (games that aren't stuck to the past).
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I don't think that is the case at all. Most of the players have left the game. This is on Steam.
q7zWwo3.jpg


Even on Xbox, the game ranks on #22 on the most played games list, behind games like Red Dead Redemption 2 (which released in 2018) and just above Dead by Daylight.

Considering they also had to gut 343i, it is pretty clear to see that the game didn't meet expectations and was, indeed, a commercial failure.
really bad for a F2P game.
 

Shut0wen

Member
How much did the game cost to make? It's profitable plus opportunity costs?


Infinity Ward is their best, but their biggest IP would be CoD. You keep IW on CoD and maybe have Treyarch take a shot at Halo and see if they can save it.
Well none of that information is out in the public except it had the biggest launch ever (which means nothing) but you can find games relatively quick on all game modes which is surprising for imo a failed f2p title, i wouldnt be surprised if its close to breaking even right now, especially since the cosmetic aint cheap either and every current player has a cosmetic from either the battlepass or the store, ive seen more people with fancy cosmetic on halo then i have on apex
 

Pelta88

Member
The narrative that Halo Infinite is a failure is pure and unadulterated bullshit.

Exactly this, the game makes money just no where the amount MS had in mind, plus its taken 343 an incredibly long time to fix, look how long it took them to fix master chief collection

Infinite went from celebrating 20 million players to the community being in up in arms because the player base left and finding a multi match became a problem within a few short months. The game was supposed to live and be a live service for 10 years but Microsoft has since gutted the studio. The article in the OP states specifically that the studio has been hit hard by layoffs. Phil Spencer (almost) literally walked into 343 and was like

get-the-fuck-out-gtfo.gif


and is reportedly taking the IP away from them. Add to that, the multitude of XBOX insiders that said the game missed every single financial expectation... A game making some money is one thing. A business being unable to recoup it's financial investment is a different beast entirely. The game is a failure. And there is no amount of PR or damage control that can change that fact.
 
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clarky

Gold Member
This is just the same news as last week no?

We already have 78 threads on it. Also IGN source's lol: Twitter.
 
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anthony2690

Banned
TLDR: IGN sources state that 343 will not be sole developer when the dust settles.

"IGN has learned that significant cuts have been made to 343's Halo development team. One former 343 employee impacted by the layoffs estimated about a quarter of 343's staff was impacted, although that's not a firm statistic. We've also learned that around 30 people were let go from 343's art department alone, with former employees saying 343 Industries was hit "hard with positions impacted across all disciplines."

Meanwhile, at least one senior-level source with knowledge of 343's internal workings, but who is no longer with the studio, has claimed to IGN that it is being reduced to to publishing team. However, based on conversations that IGN has had with knowledgeable sources, the situation at 343 appears to be ongoing, and there is a growing — if unconfirmed — conviction that 343 will no longer be Halo's sole developer when it's settled."
Jeez, you're working overtime with your concern trolling of Xbox/Halo at this point. (Going from some of your comments in the Xbox event for today)

 
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Shut0wen

Member
I don't think that is the case at all. Most of the players have left the game. This is on Steam.
q7zWwo3.jpg


Even on Xbox, the game ranks on #22 on the most played games list, behind games like Red Dead Redemption 2 (which released in 2018) and just above Dead by Daylight.

Considering they also had to gut 343i, it is pretty clear to see that the game didn't meet expectations and was, indeed, a commercial failure.
I know this
I don't think that is the case at all. Most of the players have left the game. This is on Steam.
q7zWwo3.jpg


Even on Xbox, the game ranks on #22 on the most played games list, behind games like Red Dead Redemption 2 (which released in 2018) and just above Dead by Daylight.

Considering they also had to gut 343i, it is pretty clear to see that the game didn't meet expectations and was, indeed, a commercial failure.
But its Microsoft, if it doesnt make 4x the amount it cost its a commercial failure even double the amount to them isnt even practical and theres a million reasons why MS gave 343 the chop, id probably say them being incredibly slow and consently delaying road maps for a game thats meant to have a 10 year life cycle was final dagger, especially since within 1 year they added 1 new game mode, 4 maps and 2 battlepasses and numerous fixes
 

Shut0wen

Member
Infinite went from celebrating 20 million players to the community being in up in arms because the player base left and finding a multi match became a problem within a few short months. The game was supposed to live and be a live service for 10 years but Microsoft has since gutted the studio. The article in the OP states specifically that the studio has been hit hard by layoffs. Phil Spencer (almost) literally walked into 343 and was like

get-the-fuck-out-gtfo.gif


and is reportedly taking the IP away from them. Add to that, the multitude of XBOX insiders that said the game missed every single financial expectation... A game making some money is one thing. A business being unable to recoup it's financial investment is a different beast entirely. The game is a failure. And there is no amount of PR or damage control that can change that fact.
You realise master chief collection went through this as well? It took them almost 4 years to fix the multiplayer, once they did and realised it on steam the game started picking up momentum, the same can happen to infinte, no one dislikes the game just the lack of content
 
really bad for a F2P game.

I agree. I love halo and I love my Xbox. Those halo numbers are dissapointnting but also deserves as the game isn't great.

Bear in mind that the multiplayer part is F2P so it makes those numbers even worse. If MS wanted a GaaS game like Fornite and Apex they should have added a whole lot more collectables and content, with regular map updates and rotations.

People claiming that halo was a huge success is lying to themselves.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
You realise master chief collection went through this as well? It took them almost 4 years to fix the multiplayer, once they did and realised it on steam the game started picking up momentum, the same can happen to infinte, no one dislikes the game just the lack of content
Master Chief is a bad example because MCC isn't doing that hot either.

4ga9cm6.jpg
 
Concern trolls working overtime it seems. Can you guys pick a narrative and stick to it, please?

Obviously there’s big changes going on at 343, which is fine and warranted. Infinite took way too long to make and even after release, had a lot of issues. If Microsoft’s plan is to use support studios to help 343 make future Halo games, it makes perfect sense to shrink the teams at the studio.

The good thing is even as disastrous as Infinites development was, it still ended up being a very good game. It’s not a Crackdown situation, where there were so many studios and so many changes, the end game suffered as a result.
 

ChorizoPicozo

Gold Member
Concern trolls working overtime it seems. Can you guys pick a narrative and stick to it, please?

Obviously there’s big changes going on at 343, which is fine and warranted. Infinite took way too long to make and even after release, had a lot of issues. If Microsoft’s plan is to use support studios to help 343 make future Halo games, it makes perfect sense to shrink the teams at the studio.

The good thing is even as disastrous as Infinites development was, it still ended up being a very good game. It’s not a Crackdown situation, where there were so many studios and so many changes, and the end game suffered as a result.
Imagine continually giving the benefit of the doubt. blunder after blunder.
 
Desolve 343i completely. Or give them new IP.
They don't deserve halo at all.

Makes zero sense for this team to be chucked another IP. Just bin them off or keep them as a smaller team that ties all the other studios actually making halo products together.

There are good people at 343 who really are passionate about halo. So there is still value there in my opinion.

I think the obvious exciting idea would be to chuck the IP at ID/Bethesda to make a new campaign.
 
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Imagine continually giving the benefit of the doubt. blunder after blunder.

Who am I giving the benefit of the doubt to? The studio that I said took to long to make a game that even still, launched with issues thus warranting the studio being reshuffled? They deserve criticism and for people to lose their jobs. But they still helped make a great game.
 

ChorizoPicozo

Gold Member
Who am I giving the benefit of the doubt to? The studio that I said took to long to make a game that even still, launched with issues thus warranting the studio being reshuffled? They deserve criticism and for people to lose their jobs. But they still helped make a great game.
imagine ignoring past blunders of a studio incapable to have their shit together for 10 years.
 

small_law

Member
I'm glad to see changes taking place. If Halo Infinite is 343 at its best, and it indisputable is, its best isn't good enough. 343 had its chances.

I've said it a thousand times. When Bungie handed over Halo to Microsoft, it was one of the most valuable entertainment properties on earth. 343 indisputably devalued the brand.
 
imagine ignoring past blunders of a studio incapable to have their shit together for 10 years.

Again, ignoring what? How am I ignoring anything if I am saying people should lose their jobs, the game took too long to come out and still had issues? I honestly can’t tell if you’re just a slow warrior or just trolling. I’m going to assume trolling and say good day 👍
 

ChorizoPicozo

Gold Member
Again, ignoring what? How am I ignoring anything if I am saying people should lose their jobs, the game took too long to come out and still had issues? I honestly can’t tell if you’re just a slow warrior or just trolling. I’m going to assume trolling and say good day 👍
you keep focusing only in Infinite. When the issues where before it.

there is even an interview with Ross saying basically that they fuckep up regarding the technology.

and each 343 game (including MCC) had issues/the community was pissed at something.
 
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