Over the weekend, the rumor mill provided plenty of speculation about the future of the Halo franchise. Accordingly, 343 Industries is said to no longer be the primary developer. A denial followed quickly!
Rumors and speculations in the gaming industry are often not even commented on, but this case is an exception! A report circulated over the weekend that 343 Industries had been sawed off as the primary developer of the Halo series and would only oversee the franchise in the future. But there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with that, because, unusually, the official side has now issued a very clear denial of this report.
After Bungie left the Microsoft family, 343 Industries took the Halo series under its wing and has since developed and published all parts of the action franchise – most recently Halo Infinite, which despite everything had fallen short of the high expectations. Nevertheless, the studio now assures in a statement that they will continue to develop Halo games in the future – despite all rumors to the contrary on the Internet.
— Hello (@Hello) January 21, 2023
“Halo and the Master Chief are here to stay,” said studio head Pierre Hintze in a brief statement, before adding: “343 Industries will continue to develop Halo now and in the future – epic stories, multiplayer and more of what makes Halo so great, inclusive.”
For the time being, there is no longer much room for further interpretations about an end to the Halo developments at 343 Industries itself. The studio’s denial follows a report by French Halo leaker Bathrobe Spartan that 343 is withdrawing from active development of the series. Bathrobe Spartan is considered very reliable in the Halo scene and mostly hit the mark with his statements. As for outsourcing future Halo development work to third-party studios, he doesn’t appear to be entirely right.
Previously, 343 Industries was also severely affected by the wave of layoffs at Microsoft, which recently fueled speculation even more.
Halo Infinite’s December update is here, and alongside some tweaks and bug fixes, it includes a Custom Game Browser for browsing games created by the Forge.
