While Microsoft has formalized the dismissal of 10,000 employees to save money, it seems that the 343 Industries studio, guarantor of the Halo license, is quite strongly impacted.
A significant new beginning for a Halo figure
According to journalist Jason Schreier, Joe Staten simply left the studio to return to Xbox Publishing. As a reminder, the creative director had been called in for reinforcement during the summer of 2020 to complete the game, which was finally released a year later.
After a big postponement of a year, a lackluster launch due to a flagrant lack of content and a purely and simply canceled local cooperative mode, we cannot say that Halo Infinite has particularly shone as Xbox’s flagship.
Although Phil Spencer or Matt Booty have never really communicated on the reasons for these failures, the studio has been singled out by players for two years. Last summer, we also learned that the Halo Infinite campaign had been greatly reduced from the initial concept, which explained why the first trailer for the game seemed so far removed from what was delivered.
343 Industries is (still) in trouble, Halo Infinite threatened
The departure of Joe Staten is only a half surprise, even if he still declared last September that he would love “to be able to do something like ODST again”. It follows other major departures from the studio in recent months, including that of David Berger, head of the Slipspace Engine, in September 2022.
There is no doubt that the performance of Halo Infinite is not at the level of what can be expected from the biggest franchise in history Xbox. According to the sources of lordsofgamingmajor layoffs were announced at 343 Industries as part of the major downsizing within Microsoft.
According to the same sources, at least 60 people were laid off yesterday at 343 Industries in Washington. Knowing that the studio employed no less than 450 people at its peak, it is therefore a significant part of the teams. Bloomberg mentions profiles who sometimes worked for more than ten years on the Halo franchise and quotes an email from Pierre Hintze, the head of the studio.
We’ve made the difficult decision to restructure parts of our team, which means some roles are being cut.
According to sources at Jason Schreier and Lordsofgaming, these layoffs within the studio would mostly affect the teams that worked on Halo Infinite’s single-player content.
This bad news for the teams was quick to arouse some resentment, like the words of Patrick Wren, who worked on the multiplayer of Halo 5 and Halo Infinite, and who officiates today at Respawn Entertainment.
The layoffs at 343 shouldn’t have happened and Halo Infinite should be in better shape. The reason for both is incompetent leadership at the top during Halo Infinite’s development, which is causing tremendous stress for those working hard to make Halo the best it can be.
The people I worked with every day were passionate about Halo and wanted to do something awesome for the fans. They helped push for a better Halo and were fired for it.
The developers are still working hard on this dream. Look at the Forge. Be kind to them during this difficult time.
The layoffs at Microsoft come as the company had an exceptional 2022. Satya Nadella confirmed “record results” in fiscal 2022 with $198 billion in revenue and $83 billion in operating profits.
