Yeah in hindsight we all do better
That doesn’t say more than management stepped in and had them rescope a game that got out of control. The removing of staff though can be either negative or positive, because if the staff that was removed was done so to give Staten full control. Then it was the right move.
What’s negative about it is the staff wasn’t allowed to continue working on Infinite. But we don’t know why.
Reliance on the contractors is a reality and is not going away. That how the companies are able to keep the costs down and keep the game prices as pretty much the same level as they were 10-15 years back and make profit.
If a company in the USA or any other western nation hires an employee they have to provide a salary which is market competitive, Lets say a minimum of 40-60K per annum starting salary. But a contractor or outsourcing studio located in China, India, Singapore, Brazil, Malaysia or any other developing nations, studios can get away with providing 5000-7000 dollars a year to that person working as a contractor or an artist in an outsourcing studio, which in local currencies is quite reasonable pay but not competitive to global standards.
As far as 343 is concerned it was a definitely an upper management problem of too many chefs in the same kitchen, and too many important people having their say leading to confused and not focused development.
Also HALO is a unique case where the vision of the studio artists and the gamers hardly align. It’s a very unique situation where company doesn’t have the freedom to show creativity where the fanbase is hellbent to keep the game in such a precise/nostalgic mould that it becomes very tricky for the studio to take decisions and direction. If you go too much for the old look it looks outdated, if you go too much in the forward direction it looks nothing like HALO. And this goes for the gameplay too. And this is where the fanbase is so crazy that for half of them they prefer one style to another. It becomes almost next to impossible for a studio to take such precise decision and also where you have to completely nail and deliver Campain, Multiplayer, Forge, Co-Op, Splitscreen and a Live Service.
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That’s a shame. Is it bad that I wanted to see it? 
I wonder if this latest firing is linked with the power struggle and in fighting within the studio, one side “won” and now they will all be “one team” again and refocus. This whole deal with 343i is crazy and interesting for good and bad reasons.
I wonder if we’ll see Halo hibernate quietly till next gen with a reborn Halo in 2028 with a new vision sort of like God of War 2018. They’ll keep updating invite with MP content and the BR will drop to cover in the meantime.
Given the size of the layoff across all of MS, it’s more likely they were given a percentage to cut their labor cost by.
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Doubt it, because the new head of the studio was the guy that worked to revitalize MCC.
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Devastating day yesterday, feel for all the people impacted, as for Halo campaigns, well it was nice hoping we’d get a campaign expansion in Infinite eventually but I imagine that has been canceled now and they’ll probably release a new one to start next gen or maybe late this generation, who the hell knows, I’m so disappointed but not surprised to see this happening to 343i, just far too many failures.
I put this in the other thread but I feel it could fit here
To expand on the other studios doing Halo titles…
The baggage that will come with that will be fucking awful, have you seen the community that surrounds the franchise? I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Halo is one of the least-desirable ips to work on at Xbox by a longshot because of all the shit that comes with the franchise and its gameplay style. Let’s not try to beat around the bush but Halo has been dead since 2007 and with party chat eliminating game chat. Simply put, Arena shooters don’t capture attention as much as they used to especially with Battle Royals and the growth of extraction shooters
In my opinion 343 should support the game for as long as they see it fit. In the meantime, they shift off whatever remains of the singleplayer team into brainstorming what they could do next for the franchise. Make infinite’s MP into a platform and begin work on non-FPS halo games. Stuff like RPGs, Halo Wars, a game about Sabre Pilots similar to Ace Combat. Literally anything but another FPS title.
If they want to keep working on single player stuff I think you’re idea is right
Current 343/Halo as an FPS simply has far too much baggage, working on something different like some third person ODST thing or RPG or whatever would keep the IP alive, take a huge amount of pressure of as people will be nowhere near as bitchy about things the way they are mainline Halo alongside supporting the multiplayer in Infinite
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Is Frank O’Connor still at 343i? Feel like I haven’t heard of him in the last 5 years.
Anything other than a FPS title. Obviously I’m gonna sound over dramatic but it’s gonna save the franchise from being iced. We just need something different from Halo. Infinite’s campaign was a good start by being open world. Now use that creativity and do something entirely different as a game
Mass Effect style spinoff, play as an ODST going on different missions with your own squad like Mass Effect, infiltrating insurrectionist bases, Banished and others, make it an RPG too.
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Lot of shitty suggestion lol.
An ODST/Marine game in the style of Rainbow 6 New Vegas or Star Wars Republic Commando would also be a treat
Sounds like big changes for 343.
Will continue to support Infinite but ultimately 343 as an internal dev will wind down and they will be looking to dish core development to other studios moving forward.
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Not ODST. Entirely different group, we step away from the whole world of UNSC armed forces and move into another part
We would move into ONI and a different side of Halo. The game would be about a Prowler crew, maybe similar to the makeup of Kilo-5 so a mix of civilians and ONI operatives. They would be going around the Outer Colonies attempting to get them to fight against the Banished/Created Remnants. If you really wanted to connect it to the pats games then it would make sense for the headquarters of our heroes would be on Sanghelios
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Oh my oh my this looks great! And yes, Fallout looking like that…here is my money.
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