Such contracts are not unusual in normal software development. You give these contractors only work for around x amount of weeks/months. I did such gigs. But normal software development is a bit more predictable than gaming chaos.
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Sound very ineffective for game development? What is the reason for it?
Its to prevent transitioning of contractors to becoming full time employees.
Heres an article from 2015 talking about the new rules.
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In 1989, the Internal Revenue Service determined Microsoft had misclassified some employees as independent contractors. The company in 2000 agreed to pay a $97 million settlement to thousands of workers who subsequently sued Microsoft for the benefits awarded to full-time employees.
After the āpermatempsā lawsuit, Microsoft put in place rules designed to reduce the risk that temporary workers would slide toward de-facto employee status. For example, staff provided by temp agencies would be required to take a 100-day break after a year of service at Microsoft.
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Microsoft in July 2014 sent a memo announcing that contractors who had worked at the company for 18 months would have to take a six-month break from access to company property
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Usually in Europe its government laws about work regulation that require such contract conditions. Its to prevent companies from exploiting the work force. Works most of the time, can be a headache. Donāt know about US law.
In a project not every kind of work needs to be done from start to finish of the project. So you hire specialists for a timeframe, they do their stuff and then go to the next company or project. You obviously canāt do this with the core team of your game, them you just employ. This stuff can work. Donāt know the specifics why its a problem for 343i, can only speculate: probably major events throwing your project planning completely out of the water like rebooting dev or covid 
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Yeah, I was mostly curious as to why it seems to be a problem for MS/in the US. When reading some of @BRiT link I suppose it has to do with over reliance on contract workers who perhaps would be better as full employees but MS doesnt want to have them as proper employees? The ābenefitsā are things that are free here, like health care I guess?
Yes. Its to prevent companies from abusing contractors, when they should hire them as full-time when needed. The full time employee benefits include Health Insurance, dental, vision, paid time off, short term and long term disability coverage. Not all of those are entirely free, but they are substantially discounted where the company covers majority of it, usually its heavily discounted like for single person coverage the persons costs are anywhere in $100 to $300 per 2 week paycheck. There are also other benefits like company stock grants or options and other retirement plans like 401k.
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Good question. I have no idea. You really would need inside knowledge of how 343i works to answer that. We also have no idea what āover relianceā relly means. Is this hundreds of single contractors? How many, how long? But yeah, their work force seems smaller than other GaaS studios and they also the all these transmedia stuff.
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Yeah, you would think Halo should be at Destiny-levels.
I think outsourcing to external studios is probably a better option. Itās difficult to maintain a massive workforce due to the typical game dev cycle. GAAS does help that a bit, but itās not perfect and itās also something 343i is new to.
I think Halo might have the worst collection of fans of any entertainment property. I cannot think of any group that hate the thing they are supposed to like more.
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Star Wars says hi
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Game of Thrones
They were right about Season 8
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I donāt care if you agree, itās the way they went about it. Absolute fucking cretins
Many also hated the great seasons for asinine reasons and think Georgeās books will fix everying
ā¦you know, the ones that will never be finished, because he doesnāt care anymore
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You must agree GoT was not good post S4 save for a couple of episodes that were mostly good TV than good GoT.
And yeah, WoW is never coming out.
Omg this show so far fucking chills
I want to watch but I hate that they donāt drop the whole season day one like Netflix 
They did a intro thing like GoT for the start and it made me tear up seeing our boy on the big screen
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Uhh yāall realize that contractor is an gaming industry wide practice, right? lol itās not Just MS.