I personally enjoyed both Halo 4 and Halo 5 quite a bit, so I’m not really negative about the post-Bungie era of Halo. Halo 5 had my second favorite PvP multiplayer in the franchise (Reach is #1). Obviously though, I am in the minority here. My only serious complaints for this era of Halo would be the terrible MCC launch, Halo Infinite’s poor post-launch support, and split-screen campaign support being dropped with H5 (pls keep on carrying that torch Gears of War).
If I was in charge, I would just leave a large team at 343 to continue making Infinite the platform for modern Halo (along side MCC for the classics) and just focus on spin-offs based on the IP. Starting a new mainline Halo game under any studio (which I am seeing being suggested online) would be a mistake in my opinion. Give mainline Halo a long break (besides continuing Infinite’s multiplayer support), and give the fans ODST 2, Halo Tactics, an Arby game, a fucking platformer, whatever. I guess what I am saying is to keep Infinite’s 10 year plan (well a much less ambitious version of it) and shift over to primarily focusing on spin-offs.
Or selfishly, just put everyone at 343 on Halo Wars 3 and make me happy.
Continue to enjoy Infinite’s excellent single player campaign. And wait till the next game for the single player content… like always excluding Halo 4.
In the grander scheme, this is ultimately good for the IP. Halo being explored in different game genres is what many fans wanted. That can be only seen as a good thing. The only issue is that it will not be anytime soon.
it is good to hear that their MP/Live Service plans are relatively unchanged. I am happy as the MP is immensely enjoyable and the current roadmap shows that it will get better IMO.
For SP-only fans, this info may be disappointing to hear though.
As someone who has enjoyed Halo Infinite’s campaign immensely, this is very depressing. My heart goes out to everyone who lost their job and my frustration definitely goes towards the management that lead them to this situation. I knew and called it out on the podcast that touting this game as a “10 year platform” was a mistake, I called it out that focusing on the BS line of “launch is just the beginning!” was a red flag, and their over-reliance on contractors has had obvious negative consequences. I don’t understand how someone completely disconnected from the project like me could see these warning signs but the management involved with the game could not.
I don’t want Halo to be licensed out to other studios for single player content, I want the talented and passionate people at 343i to work on further expansions into the campaign. For all of the hard work, abuse, and adversity those people have endured and pushed through to create a great game, they did not deserve this at all. For anyone who was calling for 343i to be fired or removed from Halo, congrats, you kind of got what you wanted and it’s absolutely terrible.
I guess we will have to wait and see if it’s true or not but when he mentioned that the news could be taken as a positive or a negative this was sort of what I had in my head
Said it elsewhere but the series has way too much baggage and 343 regardless of how much you want to believe is or isn’t their fault when it comes to a decade and 3 games of underperformance, isn’t something that can continue in its current form
Other teams with fresh ideas and spin offs in different genres sounds like a good plan to me, current Halo needs to take a backseat for a while until they figure out what to do in the long term
They are basically doing that already with Tatanka/CA so no reason I can’t see that extending to other studios
This is truly sad for all the people let go. I hope they find employment soon or all can come together and start up a new studio. It is crazy Bethesda employees particularly were let go because RPGs take years to make and that studio needs more workers, not less.
God knows they’re gonna need all the manpower they can get for TES VI. Assuming Starfield is nearing the finish line now. Some of it makes sense, but BGS? Wonder how many were let go.
I think these layoffs are happening at every studio, we just haven’t had as much reporting about the rest. I mean Schreier has been reporting what he can on the matter but like most insiders he’s limited by what sources he has and where. He just happened to have sources at 343 and was able to report on them more extensively (something we know cause he has reported on the internal workings at 343 in the past) and presumably has sources at Bethesda too.
Hopefully Bethesda aren’t too badly affected cause I agree with your point though, kinda nuts they’d be cutting their staff with Starfield being one of their biggest games right now. Maybe they were better positioned to let staff go right now with a major project winding down?
