Since its inception, the series Halo it was the face of the Xbox brand, so with each new console, a new Halo title would be there to help drive sales soon after. In the same way that Nintendo has the Mario and Zelda franchises and PlayStation once had Crash Bandicoot and among others.
However, recent years and a clear mismanagement of talent have caused a major disaster in terms of the importance and quality of Halo games, that is, for some time it had been felt that Microsoft was not investing enough interest. in the franchise, and that was worrisome.
Not just for fans of Xbox and Halo for a long time, but also for those who want to see the gaming space continue to evolve at a rapid pace. For better or worse, the rivalry between PlayStation and Xbox has been a major driving force in the rapid growth of the industry.
That is why the competitive nature of the gaming space plays a key role in the high quality of the games. But now that Halo won’t be around to push the FPS envelope on Microsoft’s side, what else does the brand have to offer in this competition?…
Microsoft hasn’t backed 343 since it took over Halo development from Bungie
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier first reported that Microsoft had decided to lay off 10,000 employees on January 18. And among many of those employee cuts, game studios Bethesda and 343 were hit particularly hard, and that is two of the company’s largest game development teams.
“The scale is still unclear, but so far Bloomberg has confirmed job cuts at Bethesda Game Studios (Starfield) and 343 Interactive (Halo). A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment on how many gaming division employees were laid off.
Schreier later reported that Joe Staten, a key figure who helped push Halo Infinite across the finish line, is leaving the studio to rejoin Xbox Publishing. The reporter also confirmed on Twitter that “it looks like the Halo Infinite campaign team of 343 took a hit. In an email to staff, studio director Pierre Hintze wrote that “we have made the difficult decision to restructure elements of our team, which means some roles will be eliminated.”
Halo Infinite was marketed as a reboot of the franchise, in which 343 Industries was back and focused on telling the story of The Master Chief. It took years and tens of millions of dollars to see the light of day. The campaign almost serves as a retelling of the original. Halo’s open world element is a fantastic step in the right direction and the first truly positive change for the franchise since the developer Bungie handed over the reins after Halo: Reach.
Infinite’s multiplayer is solid, but the lack of content output for the feature caused gamers, including myself, to switch to playing other multiplayer games. The ones that were given more support and gameplay. Now Halo’s demise isn’t due to a lack of passion from its developer, but rather, it comes down to a lack of faith and support from Microsoft.
