Looks like 343 Industries’ turnover isn’t quite over yet. Last year the studio experienced an earthquake with the departure of Bonnie Ross, who was entirely responsible for the studio and the Halo franchise, who had to leave supposedly due to personal and health issues, which some outside sources have denied. Since then, there have even been mass layoffs at the studio, including many among the 10,000 employees Microsoft recently laid off.
This earthquake caused a major change in direction, but it wasn’t until recently with the departure of first 343 Industries and then Joseph Staten’s Microsoft that he came to pull Halo Infinite’s development out of the hole, which which seems to indicate that there’s a much bigger, underlying shift in both the franchise and the studio that we don’t know about.
Frank O’Connor hints at his next stop
From Windows Central Informant that the director of the franchise so far, Frank O’Connor, could have stopped working on it for good. Since 2004 he has worked at Microsoft with the Halo saga, and recently held the position of artistic director of the franchise, but that seems to have changed, because according to his profile, this position now appears to be completed in April 2023 and at the top appears another indeterminate, of which we will surely know more soon.
As we find out if this news has finally arrived or is it a misinterpretation of his Linked In, we can mourn the loss of Frank O’Connor to the Halo franchise, since he wasn’t only involved in games, but also in all kinds of products, transmedia and its design. We will be attentive to be able to officially confirm the news to you soon.
