Yeah there previous games have been, but Cory Barlog already has a second team in place working on his next game. And if you go to there LinkedIn it has multiple job openings in the Santa Monica studio location for Unannounced title.
I donât really consider SSM a God of War studio like I consider 343 a Halo studio though. I guess it is true that thatâs l theyâve made though. I guess the difference to me is that 343 was built specifically for Halo.
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Personally, I think it reeks of insecurity. Itâs a sad way to live.
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There is an outcry within the community for Microsoft to build or acquire a studio just for Fallout, if that were to happen, no wonder 20 years from now, there will be people within this forum wanting this studio to do something other than Fallout.
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343âs main focus should always be Halo and there should never be a time when they are working on another game at the expense of a Halo title, that much I think is obvious. However, I do think that the studio would benefit from having some kind of avenue to foster creativity and give people the freedom to pursue that creativity - thereâs gonna be people within the studio who have some great idea or creative drive and this is how you get the NEXT Halo or you get passion projects like Pentiment or Grounded, or feel burned out simply working on one franchise. And maybe being able to explore this sort of freedom gives them a renewed drive or some additional insight that takes Halo even further in the long run.
If these sorts of drive arenât being nurtured their best option is simply to leave - thatâs great ideas and talent 343/Microsoft risk losing out on. I donât think its so bad if Microsoft and 343 have some kind of system in place to let them work on something different - whether they work as a sub-team at 343 and release it under a different name or branch off into a new studio altogether. Of course, this is heavily dependent on 343 reaching a point where they can comfortably manage every Halo related development goal and can spare people working on another project - that is very clearly not a position they are in right now.
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Well said
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This is the perfect storm for unrelenting toxicity.
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Yes, its obvious. But ⌠I donât think they will be. There is work to be done on Grounded Expansions, through DLC or Story addons. They also have to coordinate the Grounded transmedia series.
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People are out to lunch when they say let one of the COD factories work on Halo.
They have no experience with the franchise or itâs lore and why on earth would MS ever pull a team away from a way more popular and successful IP to work on Halo.
343âs the best that we got for Halo, for better or worse. Let them figure it out because itâs the best option we got for the franchise.
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Yeah that is pretty spot on by Jez. Bungie wouldnât even take it back due to exactly that reason (not that theyâd have the option, just as a hypothetical for dicsussion). Thereâs a reason Bungie stopped being transparent and open about DestinyâŚit was the way their devs were being treated online by the fanbase.
343 has very nearly perfected the Halo gameplay formula imho and extended it notably with Infinite. Sure, it took a while to figure out how to make a good campaign with a good story, and how to build a good MP experience, but they are almost perfect in the end result as a play experience. Give that back to Bungie and suddenly theyâd have to re-learn the lessons 343 has. Same would go for iD and Infinity Ward or Respawn, etc.
It is almost impossible to take a storied franchise that is famous for story AND campaign gameplay AND the MP gameplay AND the MP/SP feature set. All while fans spend a decade arguing over sprint or equipment or weapon balance, etc. iD hasnât made any amazing Halo games in the past decade, nor has any of those other devs ppl trot out as âoptionsâ. Starting the entire learning curve over is literally the worst idea anyone could conceive of. Weâd be waiting another decade for any other team to find the sweet spot, if ever.
Every hardcore Halo fan has different feelings on what the âidentityâ of Halo is, what features are âcore to the Halo experienceâ, what gameplay tweaks reflect a polished game experience, etc. It is literally not possible to please the masses when huge sectors of the fanbase are split into a half dozen awkward venn diagrams without enough overlap to pin down whatâs most important.
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Too bad, could have saved Halo.
(I also hope you realized I was making a Ryan McAffrey joke. lol)
I entirely did. I wanted to comment just how big of a franchise this little passion project is turning out to be. Itâs a great event to see happen. Which entirely makes that initial horrible take all the more horrible.
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Haha yeah, that take just keep getting worse and worse.
Problem with wanting 343i to do another IP or game is they are understaffed to do Halo. They scrapping split screen even if it almost works. You would get a 2 year season if you thin out the team even more.
This idea is bonkers.
imho I think a lot of what Jez put down regarding the state of 343 is probably closer to the truth then what anyone else is saying. Particularly, how some key members of 343 were shown the door due to not being upfront with Microsoft as to how progress on infinite was shaping up (sounds eerily similar to some of what happened with battlefield 2042).
I think Joseph Staten coming back to 343 was partially âplease save Halo Infiniteâ on the part of Microsoft but it was also âplease clean house at this studio and fix whatever the fuck is wrong.â
even in that video 30 minute update video you saw that. New people being placed in charge to man the ship of Halo Infiniteâs live service. I donât think thereâs any point in denying how much 343 has fucked up in the past, and Infinite in of itself is absolutely part of that fuck up, but despite all of that, I think weâve seen enough people âresignâ over the past few months to signal that 343 is probably undergoing a significant change right now, and given how things have been in the past, itâs hard to believe anything can get worse.
In the context of all that, advocating for Halo to be given to another studio is kind of nonsensical in my mind. A better idea (and the one that Microsoft went with it seems) is to just fix 343 and have a major management shakeup.
not going to lie, as someone who has advocated a lot for a studio like the coalition to work on a new thing and take a break from gears, I would like the same privilege to be given to 343, but I donât think they are in a position to do that for the next several years, and I think theyâd need to expand as a studio to have any hope of managing to franchises.
With that being said though, I would just as much love to see 343 go in a direction akin to what Mojang has done with Minecraft where they make Halo games in different genres and have Infinite act as the foundation upon which all of that is built. I still have thoughts of what a Halo RPG or a Halo survival horror game (with the flood) would look like, and I would LOVE that.
they can do that when they got Halo Infinite in a state of stable and reliable workflow. So in like 2 years.
Taking 343 on Halo would be like taking Toyota off Camry production and giving it to Ford and saying figure it out. The funniest part of all this is that this new studio in charge of shepherding Halo is just gonna hire the people already working at 343. Weâve seen this with the multiples of ex-Lionhead devs who joined Playground to work on Fable. Weâve seen it with 343 hiring ex-Bungie devs. Anybody that wants to risk their sanity to stand in front of the Halo community freight train from hell and get blasted by toxicity is either already working at 343 or quit because they couldnât take it anymore.
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A creative answer answer for Halo instead of solely focusing on which studio has the primary games is to create some other cool game experiences in the IP using other studios or portions of 343 that can help appeal to wider audiences and get people interested in what is one of my favorite IPs. That grows the overall player base and would certainly help have more people just enjoying what is still my favorite Halo MP yet in Halo Infinite than having so much fan baggage and being focused on the criticism (yes, some is warranted I understand). The reported battle royale type mode/game that Certain Affinity is working on could be that type of experience to broaden the interested player base, and I would be all for some talented partner studio/343 team doing some other type of experience too. Heck even a very cool younger focused experience could be awesome for this purpose too (remember the cancelled Mega Bloks game), as I am having a blast with games like Tinykin for example too 
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I wonder if major issue for 343 is they donât have enough in house devs working on it. I donât care what people say, but the actual gameplay for Infinite is one of the best in series. Itâs just a shame the post launch has been a disaster and currently have one of the worst live service ever. I think Infinite would be in less hot water if the store wasnât a disaster and greedy making money off of items.
Anyways, I think a needed restart and push could salvage this game if that BR that Certain Affinity is working on is a hit.