They’re forward looking, so they dont have to adjust things if a midgen-upgrade arrives or when their next-gen platform launches.
3 Likes
TECHNICALLY they are playable on Xbox One via the cloud, so…
1 Like
6 Likes
11 Likes
Why is 343 so reliant on contractors compared to other Xbox studios.
For your main ip. 343 should be the biggest studio. Also how long do you think support on infinite will be?.
They’re not. All Xbox studios have some reliance on contractors and support studios. Its just that 343 has a significantly larger Title to work on.
11 Likes
It’s not just that they rely on contactors, it’s that MS has a rule to only allow contractors to work for 18 months, and they won’t hire most of those contractors because replacing them with other contractors is cheaper, this thing might be ok for a lot of projects but not games that take 4+ years, especially not games with proprietary engines.
2 Likes
In that case if they are “all” in on gaming why wouldn’t this rule be change for gaming. But weird tbh. I hope they learn a lesson from this.
I don’t think they can change this just for gaming, it would take a very long time for a corporate wide employment change such as that to take effect, and they have that rule so that they avoid getting sued in the first place.
If Halo Infinite is the one real example we have where we can see that that rule might have hurt the game’s development, the decision to be made should simply be to allow 343i to open hiring for their contractors. 343i seem grossly understaffed for what they aim to make with Halo to begin with.
2 Likes
That assumes the contracts between Microsoft and the Contractor Studios allows for direct hires. Contracts of all sorts exist out there. If you can imagine a clause, it likely exists in some contract somewhere.
Over my years of working in software engineering, I have been in positions where it was possible to be hired by the client and times where it was expressly prohibited for a term of no less than 12 months after contract work ended and times where it was prohibited until 12 months after leaving the Contract Studio even if client work finished years before. I’ve also had contracts which stated I was prohibited working for competitors of clients for a period no less than 12 months within a 100 mile radius. There have been contracts where it was possible to be hired by the client but with a substantial buyout to the Contract Studio.
TL/DR: It depends.
4 Likes
Does the US not have standard employee rights/laws? I’m not sure I have to worry about anything like that where I live, but interesting nonetheless. I guess, anyway, at 343i something about hiring should be done (should have been done) and should be realized internally and avoided for future projects.
I’m in Germany and we here have similar issues with contractors (i’m one myself). Its not a hard 18 months cut from the law but some companies prefer to stay on the safe side. Which is not a problem 99% of the time, more like a hassle.
2 Likes
Can’t they just hire people normally?
They can, assuming there isn’t an overall hiring freeze in place. The trouble with hiring people directly is how do you know how they will do with this proprietary in-house technology. Some places try out direct contract-to-hire situations, but some folks are so against it that they won’t switch jobs for something that’s not guaranteed.
We have a period of time, it varies but something like 6 months, where both the employer and employee have an easier time to get rid of/leave a new job if it’s not a good fit. Once that time is up you get a secure position, we have proper labor laws though so I guess people feel safer here, it can’t be abused by the employer since you have to have proper reasons to fire people and we have strong unions.
To me it sounds like 343 needs a bunch of proper employees.
2 Likes
I imagine project belfry is coming next year. Only one I’m confident on.
I saw you were talking about naming conventions going forward.
My biggest doubt regarding this is for how they would call a mid-gen upgrade.
Series X2
I have said before, I don’t think there will be next-gen. It will be new hardware upgrades.
What I imagine, Xbox Series X2 for example by 2026/27, replaces Sereis X as the premium hardware, and Series X replaces Series S as the budget entry hardware. Sereis S gets discontinued and no longer required to be supported.
1 Like
I am not sure about that. I would personally save that name for the next gen console.
Would then Series X3 coincide with PS6? Wouldnt be that kind of confusing?
I dunno.