343 is Dead - Halo SP Devolopment Ended - What's Next?

[Elder Legend]

Credit goes to NeoGaf - https://www.neogaf.com/threads/rumo...gn-dlcs-scrapped-focus-on-mp-support.1650315/

It was only a matter of time - very sad day for Halo and FPS fans. I am not surprised though. Unfortunate for the fans, pathetic from a management standpoint.



Thread Summary:

• 343 seems to have lost around 1/3 of its workforce (internal + contractors)
• 2023 plans seem unchanged by this major reshape: focus was and still is on MP for this year (Forge MM, new Seasons/BP, New maps and probably Tatanka)
• Before Bonnie Ross quitting, Joseph Staten with a small team was preparing to ship multiple contained Campaign DLC to expand its narrative over the months or even years. This plan was stopped when Pierre Hintze and the new key roles came in after Ross as they've seen too much complexity in creating new contents for Campaign + was not enough profitable for them to sustain, so they decided to completely halt them in favor on focusing on MP only for the time being (this may have led to Staten deciding to leave too)
• Halo Infinite largely missed its financial and overall goals and led to Microsoft decision to halt 343 "active development" transforming (or regress?) them into "franchise coordinators"
• This means that other than supporting Halo Infinite MP (which is already largely externalized to Certain Affinity, Spearsoft and others), their role will be limited to make sure different external studios will create further Halo projects (direct sequels to Infinite story or spin-offs of different genre) respecting all the established lore and fundamentals for the IP
• Slipspace Engine is still in place along with its internal engineers, but it will be opened up to learn and use also to all external studios working with the IP (if they want)
• In this sense, 343 together with Microsoft Game Publishing started contacting (and contracting) with external studios to create "future Halo experiences" together since 2020, also with the aim to reduce/optimize costs/budget

 

[adamsapple]

Officially Dead and Rumor are two directly contradicting statements

• This means that other than supporting Halo Infinite MP (which is already largely externalized to Certain Affinity, Spearsoft and others), their role will be limited to make sure different external studios will create further Halo projects (direct sequels to Infinite story or spin-offs of different genre) respecting all the established lore and fundamentals for the IP

This doesn't read like "Halo" is dead, but more like 343i's primary involvement is dead.

 

[Elder Legend]

Officially Dead and Rumor are two directly contradicting statements

Yeah your right, lol. Prolly should of worded it differently, but I think it's safe to says 343 is dead.

 

[Elder Legend]

Officially Dead and Rumor are two directly contradicting statements





This doesn't read like "Halo" is dead, but more like 343i's primary involvement is dead.

Yes you are most likely correct. I am wondering who will be working on Halo then or if it's going to be a multitude of studious.

 

[anonpuffs]

This could have been prevented if phil spencer had done the needful 8 years ago when halo 5 came out and had a fundamental review of 343i's management structure. Too busy getting shills to suck up to him on twitter to actually do his job though.

 

[Elder Legend]

This could have been prevented if phil spencer had done the needful 8 years ago when halo 5 came out and had a fundamental review of 343i's management structure. Too busy getting shills to suck up to him on twitter to actually do his job though.

Whats sad is that developers at 343 are very talented, but poor guidance and direction will lead you to pitfall no matter the talent and passion.

 

[Lord Mittens]

Good. 343 had multiple chances to create something incredible and blew it.

this isn't a jab at the dev's of course, the talent is exceptional.

Let us hope Halo has a good future elsewhere.

 

[Bodycount611]

This means the end of true AAA-level Halo projects and more smaller scale projects. the IP will be lended out to smaller studios.

343 now mirrors the Initiative studio's structure. a few figureheads who design concepts and then get external devs like Crystal Dynamics to do the heavy lifting.

Halo is officially over as we know it.

 

[anonpuffs]

Whats sad is that developers at 343 are very talented, but poor guidance and direction will lead you to pitfall no matter the talent and passion.

My impression of xbox leadership is that it's an old boys club and if you're in the in group you don't get held accountable for anything.

 

[Elder Legend]

Good. 343 had multiple chances to create something incredible and blew it.

this isn't a jab at the dev's of course, the talent is exceptional.

Let us hope Halo has a good future elsewhere.

Yeah, I agree. You know what really fucks with me? I will never forget e3 2014 Bonnie Ross showing me around the Halo Hololens experience. Coolest AR shit I've ever witnessed. The folks were very cool, but sometimes the reality of the world is harsher on the inside as what it actually is on the outside. I've remember doing an interview with Chris Lee on Halo 5 Guardians, fun times.

Now that time has gone by its very sad to see this outcome. I'll never forget playing on my original Xbox with my cousin in 1v1 split screens. We would play Blood Gulch and just crash warthog into each other or throw grenades under them too see how far the Warthog could ragdoll. Halo was what made Xbox, but now the biggest name of Xbox is just a tarnished soul. Insane times we live in.

 

[Vertigo]

343 will just be doing battlepass cosmetics and engineering maintenance for slipspace. I assume the rumors about the tv show affecting game development to have been true. Actually at this point I want to say 95% of Halo rumors have been true.

The BR might launch as its own separate game but still use Infinite’s battlepass. If 343 is just producing the IP now… it’s Certain Affinity’s game once the BR launches.

343 is sorta no longer makes games.

If the Activision deal goes thru the best suited for Halo are Activision’s Vicarious Visions and High Moon studios, both of whom worked with Bungie on Destiny. However rumor has it that they’re working on a CoD pve game.

 

[Elder Legend]

343 will just be doing battlepass cosmetics and engineering maintenance for slipspace. I assume the rumors about the tv show affecting game development to have been true. Actually at this point I want to say 95% of Halo rumors have been true.

The BR might launch as its own separate game but still use Infinite’s battlepass. If 343 is just producing the IP now… it’s Certain Affinity’s game once the BR launches.

343 is sorta no longer makes games.

If the Activision deal goes thru the best suited for Halo are Activision’s Vicarious Visions and High Moon studios, both of whom worked with Bungie on Destiny. However rumor has it that they’re working on a CoD pve game.

I think id Software or Machine Games should do Halo. Those devs are FPS gods. Just have 343 supervise on things like lore and certain gameplay aspects, but that's it.

 

[Vertigo]

I think id Software or Machine Games should do Halo. Those devs are FPS gods. Just have 343 supervise on things like lore and certain gameplay aspects, but that's it.

I disagree. I love both Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, like two of my favorite games in recent memory kinda love, but their gunplay and movement systems are incompatible with Halo altogether. Take for instance Doom’s PVP. It’s trash.

I don’t think just taking doom and throwing a Halo skin is the right idea either.

Also, I don’t think Halo is actually more valuable than Doom is right now. ID is better off making more Doom.

 

[Elder Legend]

I disagree. I love both Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal but their gunplay and movement systems are incompatible with Halo altogether. Take for instance Doom’s PVP. It’s trash.

Well obviously they would have to make it more Halo like cause that's what makes Halo a Halo game and CoD a CoD game. I believe they can adapt, I don't see why they couldn't it. They have the experience and I am sure MS could give them the tools and guidance needed to achieve that gunplay feel.

Yes, DOOM PvP was awful... but DOOM was always a SP centered game and put the single player at the fore front. Besides, id Software were the creators of Quake which had a massive eSports scene back in the day.

Or honestly, 343 could develop the MP portion, cause they are pretty good with that and id Software/Machine Games could do SP portion.

 

[anonpuffs]

I think id Software or Machine Games should do Halo. Those devs are FPS gods. Just have 343 supervise on things like lore and certain gameplay aspects, but that's it.

They need to reboot the franchise, and imo they need to create a team from the ground up to build a new engine and a new set of tools that is forward-looking so that 10 years down the line they aren't looking at mountains of tech debt to get things to work the way they want if to. Imo they should take a core group of engine devs from the coalition and id and give them a mandate to create a next gen engine for xbox series 2, and just start over from scratch. Reboot halo and combine CE, 2, and 3 into a new game like FF7 remake does with original FF7.

 

[Elder Legend]

They need to reboot the franchise, and imo they need to create a team from the ground up to build a new engine and a new set of tools that is forward-looking so that 10 years down the line they aren't looking at mountains of tech debt to get things to work the way they want if to. Imo they should take a core group of engine devs from the coalition and id and give them a mandate to create a next gen engine for xbox series 2, and just start over from scratch. Reboot halo and combine CE, 2, and 3 into a new game like FF7 remake does with original FF7.

Wasn't there a rumor that Halo is moving to UE5 ?

 

[anonpuffs]

Wasn't there a rumor that Halo is moving to UE5 ?

I'll believe it when I see it. Ue5 would make sense if they're just getting rid of 343 entirely since other devs wouldn't be familiar with slipspace.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

343i the support studio. Called it.

Well, more like support & consultation studio but regardless, their time as the creative leads for the franchise are over. It's honestly probably for the best. The IP's been on a steady decline for multiple years, if there's any time to reset and refocus, the time is now.

This is basically what Disney had to do with Star Wars after the disastrous Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker underperformed with the BO, critics and fans. Haven't had a theatrical SW film since then and probably won't see one again for a good number of additional years, not until the Disney+ shows are a lot more consistent in quality and viewership.

Expecting these newer Halo games to be smaller-scale affairs, and if/when they return with a big-budget AAA mainline Halo release they might soft-reboot the storyline but incorporate elements from these smaller Halo games that come about. Question is what studio would headline that next big Halo experience? Definitely not 343i; I'm thinking it could be Certain Affinity & iD Software-led collab (working with the studios MS actually have currently because no guarantee they get the ABK teams as of right now).

They need to reboot the franchise, and imo they need to create a team from the ground up to build a new engine and a new set of tools that is forward-looking so that 10 years down the line they aren't looking at mountains of tech debt to get things to work the way they want if to. Imo they should take a core group of engine devs from the coalition and id and give them a mandate to create a next gen engine for xbox series 2, and just start over from scratch. Reboot halo and combine CE, 2, and 3 into a new game like FF7 remake does with original FF7.

Honestly if they want to keep the new engine internal why not just take the parts of Slipspace that work and integrate them into a branch of iD Tech? iD Tech is an incredibly optimized engine from the looks of things, very performant too.

I agree with rebooting the IP; too much baggage at this point.

This means the end of true AAA-level Halo projects and more smaller scale projects. the IP will be lended out to smaller studios.

343 now mirrors the Initiative studio's structure. a few figureheads who design concepts and then get external devs like Crystal Dynamics to do the heavy lifting.

Halo is officially over as we know it.

They still have way more staff than The Initiative, and I doubt 343i will have much creative input in terms of design for new games going forward. They'll act more as consultation to enforce certain lore consistency, character consistency and (I assume) provide technical support especially if other teams are still using Slipspace in some way.

Aside from that though, yeah, they're basically like The Initiative now. More useful still (The Initiative are at best like Hollywood scriptwriters who shop their scripts to studios and producers to make money from them), but otherwise a lot of parallels. Some of them eerily so.

 

[ethomaz]

It is 2023… Halo is in decline for over a decade already.

 

[Shmunter]

I just don’t understand this concept of a middle management dev studio. What’s it’s purpose?

Give the ip to a deserving studio and let them at it. Why bog shit down with an added layer like this.

It doesn’t make sense Jerry!