Things in 343 don’t seem calm. Just a few minutes ago I was telling you about what happened with Joseph Staten, who has been active on Twitter trying to help former employees of the company find new work at other studios. . A sad and difficult job to do, says it all. We remember that Staten arrived to solve the organizational problems of the study with Infinite and will finally return to Xbox Publishing.
The thing does not end there unfortunately. Although the last few days have been turbulent and a lot of information may come out, some true and some not, the truth is that there are already voices that have come in one way or another to warn that something was not well. Today we’re collecting a key piece of the Insider Spartan bathrobe, which was also collected from play area. notice that Although the information is consistent, there is currently no official confirmation and it may not be accurate.
The future of Halo could go through other studies
According to the leak, the studio would be separated from the development of new Halo games, only going to feed Infinite and oversee and coordinate the development of new games and ideas for the franchise, which would now pass into the hands of other studios. Don’t think this is anything new for 343; Since 2020 they have been working with a similar model where much of Infinite’s development has been taken on by Certain Affinity or Sperasoft.
As well It’s happened in the past with Halo Wars 2where Creative Assembly brought the game to life and 343 Industries oversaw it to fit seamlessly into the franchise’s overall lore and vision.
By keeping multiple people in charge of project management and balancing Halo Infinite, 343 Industries can outsource content production to outside studios, as was already the case in Season 2.
➡️343 Industries won’t go away, however, the “Game Development” part of the studio will fade away.
The projects & the future of the studio will thus reside in a 2-point strategy:
– Coordinate Halo Infinite follow-up
– Franchise the Halo license to other studios pic.twitter.com/z2DSuyxQKf— Spartan Bathrobe 🎧 Halo Podcast (@BathrobeSpartan) January 19, 2023
There is another important point here, and as I said, it makes sense. The hard core of the development would be in charge of the evolution of the SlipSpace Engine, the proprietary engine with which they gave life to Infinite and which it seems that they are not going to get rid of in the future. Now that Microsoft will have multiple teams specializing in shooters, it might not be a bad idea for them to coordinate with 343 studios like Id Software or if the Activision takeover goes through, one of the studios in call of duty load.