No, 343 Industries hasn’t returned its apron, but the studio is probably going through its biggest challenge since it was founded in 2007 to take care of the Halo franchise following Bungie’s departure. Despite a positive initial reception, thanks to an effective single-player campaign and a multiplayer that presented good foundations, the relationship between the community and Halo Infinite quickly turned sour in the face of 343 Industries’ inability to meet expectations, between missing features and updates that were too far apart. The observation today, as cruel as it is, is that Halo Infinite is an almost anonymous game in the multiplayer FPS landscape, with a daily peak of concurrent users that has long since fallen below 10,000 players on Steam, just when Microsoft thought it had the odds in its favor by distributing the multiplayer for free.
Not far from a hundred layoffs
If we knew that 343 Industries was affected by the 10,000 layoffs announced two weeks ago by Microsoft, we did not necessarily suspect the extent of the damage. According to a document seen by Jason Schreier, at least 95 studio employees have been fired, including veteran executives and contractors, those temporary workers whose contracts never exceed 18 months and on whom 343 Industries has too often relied, causing a lack of stability in the staff. Following this blow, some crazy rumors surfaced on the web, suggesting that 343 Industries would be reduced to the status of simple license manager, while other studios would take care of the development of the next games. and Halo content.
A scenario that Microsoft quickly denied, as did Jason Schreier’s investigation. 343 Industries therefore remains in control of the Halo franchise, knowing however that no new solo content is currently on the program for Major fans. In addition, a big change awaits the studio, which has finally decided to put aside its in-house Slipspace engine in favor of the Unreal Engine, an engine already widely used in many other Xbox studios. Like a certain Frostbite at Electronic Arts, Halo’s engine had ended up having more disadvantages than advantages, according to the employees.
The Unreal Engine to the rescue
“Based largely on old code from the 1990s and early 2000s, it’s buggy, difficult to use, and has been the source of headaches for some Halo Infinite developers, according to people familiar with the development. Several nearly completed multiplayer modes, such as Extraction and Assault, both popular in previous Halo games, have yet to launch due in part to engine issues.“, can we read on Bloomberg. The idea of switching to the Epic Games engine had already made its way within the team, but it was only thanks to the departures of Bonnie Ross (director of the studio) and David Berger (engine director) as well as the appointment of new studio boss Pierre Hintze, that the step will finally be taken, despite the doubts of some employees who fear that Halo will lose its feeling characteristic with this change in technology.
Tatanka, what are you waiting for?
In the meantime, it is the Unreal Engine that will be the basis of Tatanka, the code name of the next mode of Halo Infinite that 343 Industries is developing with the help of the Certain Affinity studio. Supposed to be a battle royale mode, Tatanka could still evolve in other directions, however, according to the sources. Future Halo games will also rely on the Unreal Engine, hoping for easier development. For many, what is happening to 343 Industries today had become inevitable. When the January 18 layoffs were announced, Patrick Wren, a former multiplayer designer at the studio, publicly referred to “the incompetence of the leaders“as the cause of layoffs and shortcomings in Halo Infinite. Or, make way for the new 343 Industries.
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