Microsoft would carry out a restructuring of 343 Studios after the fiasco of Halo Infinite. According to a report from Bloomberg, the studio responsible for Xbox’s most iconic franchise will start from scratch. That means a change in leadership, new hires and a commitment to the graphics engine Unreal Engine to promote the next games of Halo.
While internal changes at 343 Studios have been evident in recent months, the wave of layoffs hit the studio hard. The report mentions that, at least 95 people lost their job. They included veterans and directors who had worked on previous projects, as well as temporary employees.
Although 343 Studios has the largest headcount of Xbox Game Studios, losing 30% of the workforce is a significant number. Joseph Staten, who was hired to rescue Halo Infinite and guarantee its release on Xbox Series X | S, he left the studio and was transferred to another division of Microsoft. Staten is joined by other important names such as David Berger, director of engineering, Bonnie Ross, head of the franchise, or Nicolas “Sparth” Bouvier, the art director who was in charge of defining the style of Halo after the departure of Bungie.
The change in leadership will allow study to restart with a view to continuing to develop more Halo games. As rumored for months343 Studios would adopt the Unreal Engine, leaving the Slipspace engine behind. The change in technology would allow exploring new horizons and would facilitate the recruitment of trained personnel. One of the limitations of halo infinite it’s its graphics engine, a proprietary technology based on code from three decades ago that makes it difficult to implement new game modes.
What will happen with Halo Infinite and the next games Halo?
Although the reboot of 343 Studios has not been confirmed by Microsoft, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, revealed a few weeks ago the studio’s continuity as the main developer of the Master Chief games. The manager put an end to the rumors about a change of hands and confirmed that 343 is “the house of Halo“Although that does not deny that there may be a collaboration. The departure of key personnel and the adoption of new technology will require the support of other internal teams during the transition period.
What we’re doing now is making sure that the leadership team is set up with the flexibility to build the plan that they need to build. Y Halo will continue to be vitally important to what Xbox is doing, and 343 is vitally important to the success of Halo.
Phil Spencer
With the changes at 343 Studios and an eye on the future of the franchise, the first question arises: what will happen to Halo Infinite? Master Chief’s most recent adventure was well received thanks to the campaign mode, although it was in the multiplayer where things fell apart. The lack of content and game modes impacted the 10-year plan, originally drawn up by Microsoft.
According to internal sources, prior to the layoffs, 343 staff working on prototypes in Unreal Engine and new ideas for upcoming games. The idea that we would see an expansion for the campaign only lived in the minds of the fans, since no one was working on downloadable content to expand the story mode. Similarly, other engineers were having trouble implementing multiplayer features due to the graphics engine.
Current technology is the main enemy of 343 Studios
Modalities like Extraction or Assault are almost finished, but cannot be released due to technical issues. This situation is similar to what we saw in the local cooperative mode that ended up being canceled Thanks to Slipspace. For now, Microsoft will bet on user-created content through Forge, the level and game mode editor.
Added to this, 343 Studios is working with Certain Affinity on a new project in Unreal Engine that could be the rumored Battle Royale of Halo. The sources that leaked this information mentioned that the game could take another direction if necessary. The explosion of the genre lost steam and several companies have had to cancel projects due to the drop in audiences.
Phil Spencer, Xbox’s top boss, has declared for two years that Halo It is vitally important to the brand. Words are still not backed up by facts, and we’ll have to wait a few years — maybe another console generation — to find out if 343 can elevate the franchise to the level it once had with Bungie.
