Layoffs at Microsoft hit 343 industries and Bethesda Games Studios

I an legit getting scared since I work for major tech company here in Canada , and just transitioned into a developer role

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Wish you the best of luck to shelter through the rough times.

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Normally I listen to Colteastwood’s XNC podcast, but I might give it a miss this week. I really don’t want to listen to Gaz ranting on about how badly Halo has been treated.

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Check out yesterday’s Seasoned Gaming Bitcast episode if you want to hear a good discussion on Halo and 343i IMO.

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I am in the same boat. Colt has to be one the biggest hypocrite. He often preaches be nice but is the first one to start fake outrage on social. Also ge has a habit of producing fake claims regarding a game through his highly produced clickbaite video titles.

Colt plays good cop bad cop with the help of Gaz where gets to say what he doesn’t want to say though Gaz so that he can maintain his fake be nice persona.

The less said about GAZ is better. He has been shitting on the game from the start and this manchild is a practicing lawyer.

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Engine Lead

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I wonder if there is a replacement lined up… if there isnt… i worry for slipspace.

Lends more weight to the Unreal 5 rumours I reckon.

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Not quite sure about that:

https://twitter.com/technicalhalo/status/1617841107601350657?s=46&t=WkpmSsSQvlzqEl47E10QwQ

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IMO 343i will stick with Slipspace Engine, they’re probably making content pipelines more efficient for the time being. But recreating in UE5 the quintessential Halo features that are already there in SE would probably take a ton of time, and shipping without them would be disastrous unless they’d advertise it as reimaginaning of the Halo series and tell from the get go that most features go away.

But improving Slipspace would be more beneficial from my point of view, the new Forge has so much potential and taking it away would be a shame.

Are people still harping on Unreal Engine 5. Its not some magic wand which is going to fix things overnight. It will lead to a ever greater problem as apart from the asset not everything will work properly. And still UE5 is not that great for seamless open world games. Its still a big memory hog.

They should just stick with Slipspace and streamline it. They now have some of the best engine devs and at Id Software and The Coalition guys can lend a hand too. Remember frostbite when it first came out and just look at it right now. You never just abandon a working product.

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I don’t think it is being suggested as a magic bullet that fixes all the ills of Halo Ifinite. It is brought up because until MS changes its business practices with regards contractors they will continue to have the same issues that have affected Halo Infinite and using a bespoke engine.

Reliance on contractors with 18 month employment limits makes using non-industry tools a gamble.

I personally dont want everything to be on a single ubiquitous engine. Bespoke technology is part of what makes different games interesting.

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You guys really think there is just one engine lead?

(And besides the engine architect is still there)

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Their contractor policy seems to be working fine with Forza and it’s custom engine (Forza tech from Turn 10). I understand there is reporting out, but I really wish people would use some critical thinking.

I think the contractor talk is somewhat overblown because majority of AAA uses contractors or in-house support studios. I think the main issue is how they’re managing output because it shouldn’t be this messy. They probably have to revise these contracts but I think its more of a management issue rather than use of contractors

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Think it was mostly a tools issue aggravated by managements and the 18-month contractor term. Reportedly the tools are way better now, so hopefully it will lessen the problem.

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You mean critical thinking like just because it works with one doesn’t mean it works with another. That type of critical thinking?

or the kind that acknowledges the catalog of real world reporting that indicates it absolutely was an issue at 343.

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:phil_lmao:

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The type of real world thinking that a corporate wide policy not good for game development would be seen at their other game development studios. :wink: The type of critical thinking skills that understands just because something is reported doesn’t mean it’s the full story. :wink: