Faced with multiple criticisms of Halo Infinite, the community manager speaks out. He admits that the teams are having difficulties and that they need time.
Enough is enough ? If Halo Infinite players have forgiven a lot of things, they themselves are losing patience today. Brian Jarrard, community manager of 343 Industries, tried to calm the spirits by acknowledging the faults of the studio from a communication point of view or the fact of not being able to meet expectations with regard to the follow-up of the game. The co-op mode is for example still not available.
Halo Infinite: change, but not in the short / medium term
Brian Jarrard, as ske7ch on Reddit, conceded 343 Industries’ struggles to deliver on its promises for Halo Infinite multiplayer but also takes time.
There are indeed many challenges and constraints. We are certainly not happy to be unable to meet the expectations of players and the community, it’s a difficult situation that will take time for the team. Right now the focus is on Season 2 and we will have more information to share in the coming weeks. During this time, production planning, costing or hiring is in progress, which is not really conducive to regular and detailed updates. We understand that the community is simply at the end of its tether and frankly, they’re tired of the lyrics. We just need time for the team to iron out the details and then we can definitely share as much as we can.
What was supposed to be a message of appeasement, however, was not well received…
343 Industries: a studio that is still looking for itself?
In the Reddit thread, some are wondering about the state of the game and the studio, five months after the launch of Halo Infinite.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but how can your studio, which has hundreds of developers, have trouble releasing new maps, modes and cosmetics?
I’m sorry but what’s going on? How, five months after launch, can you still be in the hiring and planning phases? Did I read wrong?
There’s no way things that are still in the planning stages will happen soon. How did all this happen?
At the end of 2021, Jason Schreier had written an article to share the chaotic development of Halo Infinite. According to its sources, two-thirds of the planned things were cut in the summer of 2019, including the fully open-world dimension of the game. The result was that teams found themselves not knowing what to do at times. In terms of staff, a lot of developers were on temporary contracts of 18 months maximum. A limit imposed by Microsoft. After that, they were forced to leave the company. And that’s without counting on the people who left on their own, in particular the lead multiplayer dev who packed up for “relax and recharge the batteries”.
Halo Infinite is available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.