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Brad Sams: There’s been further executive turnover at 343 Industries
- Thread starter Neat
- Start date
I'd actually love to hear someone explain why it was so bad! It was my first big Halo experience so I kind of played it wearing rose-colored glasses.
Nope...
Paul Crocker was hired in 2017 after Brian Reed was either promoted or stepped down from that position.
They made a next generation 3D engine from scratch. That takes a lot of time. Also it's only been 4 years since Halo 5 launched and we know when Halo Infinite is coming out already. I don't think there's a need to worry.
I think the time to worry would be if it misses the launch of the next console and gets delayed for a long time.
Still a lead and concerning that they need a narrative lead a year before the game is supposed to launch.
Not really, we've already seen some of the opening cinematic at E3.
Oh you're right, I actually forgot they built a brand new engine. And true, if it misses launch and gets a long delay, not good. But if we see it at E3 next year it should be fine.
Hopefully from here on we only get good news and rumors. Like that news recently about raytracing. I want positive rumors regarding what MS has in store for Xbox.
With this kind of news you just don't know what this will mean in the long run. Same as with Ghostwire Tokyo and the creative director leaving. Even if they didn't show Halo at all in terms of actual gameplay at last E3, things were looking positive. Hope that's the case here.
Could mean anything. Admit with a year until release, a little stability within 343 would be reassuring. 4 and 5 came in hot. Was hoping for something different due to the long dev cycle. Could still be fine. Though now that I've jinxed Halo Infinite, I expect the Kotaku article regarding dev hell and 343 employees having nervous breakdowns in the bathroom any day now.
Well let's see:
- Projectile weapons in a peer to peer environment + random bullet spread on the BR lead to an inconsistent weapon. It felt like you were fighting the game itself as much as the player.
- The carbine had its bullet land somewhere random within its reticle which was also annoying when trying to finish a kill
- Shield flare wasn't pronounced enough and it was hard to tell if you were hitting enemies at a distance
- There were plenty of completely useless weapons in the magnum, brute spiker, smg, plasma rifle, needler. Largely due to the dual wield system but you'd still be better off with a BR over automatics dual wielding or not. Having half of the weapons being useless is bad design.
- The equipment was a bad implementation and increased the time of engagements even further when the TTK was already higher due to the unreliable weapons. Shield doors on a few of the maps also made this worse.
- This is more of a game type issue than sandbox, but since they continued to make the mistake (as 343i is now in MCC) AR starts often consists of two people running at each other and ending in a simultaneous beatdown trade which is just awful gameplay.
Depends whether you liked what was shown or not. I loved the visuals and sound design of the trailer, but the whole hologram mother/daughter section felt too dragged out and made my eyes glaze over. Personally I'd prefer something closer to Doom 206 where the story is kept to a minimum and more time is spent shooting aliens. If there is more narrative I'd rather it be focused on the Chief and the ongoing conflict over some random side character and his family.
Edit: I keep double posting, woops.
I disagree.
From a story perspective I feel the Halo series peaked with Halo 2 as they not only put alot of focus on the cinematic's but also fleshing out the side characters. One of the problems with Halo 4 and Halo 5's narrative structure (Even 3 to a point) was that the cinematics really only focuses on two characters (Cortana & Chief) and don't flesh out other characters (Palmer, Arbiter, Didact, Blue Team, Osiris, ect.).
If the rumors are to believed it's an open world game with RPG elements. So basically Halo is dead?
More like Halo will he given a new lease of life and potential mindshare prominence. If they pull it off successfully that is.
What if people just got demoted and young creatives with newer fresher ideals moved up in the company. At Microsoft maybe their company steps probably make it difficult to just fire people so they most likely get demoted and leave on their own to go elsewhere
Not fully open world no. Who from MS was it that recently explained a little what they are going for? The areas are bigger but not completely open world.
Other than MCC, which was handled externally, 343i has made 2 solid products in Halo 4 and Halo 5. Halo 4 had a better overall story than 5 and 5 has had the best multiplayer suite in a Halo game to date.
The SlipSpace Engine being really the biggest change to date looks to be the most dense in detail while seemingly the largest scale as well based on their initial reveal.
This is pretty typical, they would be in the stage of development where the bulk of the writing is in process. This is when you get into large lore dump text, marketing, collectibles/side quests, minor dialogue (character chatter) etc. Should also point out that a narrative design lead is one of many, Halo 5 had 5 narrative designers (alongside the director and narrative experience director.)
Lol what? Game development isn't a linear process where X amount of years means you made Y amount of progress. Development is bumpy, messy and sometimes entire sections or ideas get scrapped because they couldn't make them work, losing sometimes years of labor down the drain.
Dev tim means something when you're working on a project that goes smoothly from day one, or when you can feel you have a hit on your hands. The team drastically reshuffling a year from launch doesn't convince me that they are confident they have a hit on their hands.
Everything about Halo 4 and Halo 5 SP's unfulfilled promises really left a bad taste among fans.
That being said, they have already figured out the MP in Halo 5 and I think we are going to be pleased with this times campaign also.
C'mon Game Pass
That being said, they have already figured out the MP in Halo 5 and I think we are going to be pleased with this times campaign also.
C'mon Game Pass
Going to have to stop you right there.
Define community
Halo 5 is pretty well regarded as one of the best MP titles, MCC is in fine shape now and fans are clamouring for the Reach and PC releases.
You don't speak for everyone I've been a Halo fan since CE
Then they should have done that immediately around or before Halo 5s release. Not a year before Halo Infinite is out.
I don't know if this is good or bad news. If it's done to correct the ship, MS should have done this before Halo 5s release and saved that mess they call a campaign, which did most of the damage.
In short, the intend might be good, but talk about horrible timing.
I wish we had more info though.
Don't read too much into seniority titles.
"Lead" can mean a variety of things and doesn't necessarily translate into process ownership or actual leadership. A lot of mid-size, established studios end up top-heavy with senior roles by nature of their recruiting and development needs.
In general, turnover at game companies is nothing to worry about, especially if the development team is quite large. What's most important is that the company culture is preserved—as long as the culture is strong and established, everyone is replaceable to some extent.
I would even argue that a company launching a product where its success is contingent on one employee remaining with the company is doomed even before said employee departs the company.
Just look at this example thread. :)
Halo 5 is currently at #34 on the most played games on Xbox.
Most played games - Microsoft Store
Most played games – Shop these 49 items and explore Microsoft Store for great apps, games, laptops, PCs, and other devices.
www.microsoft.com
Halo 4's multiplayer community was dead a few months after release.
MCC May be fixed, but it launched completely broken and was left that way for years. Why is that acceptable?
Fans are clamoring for reach and PC release of MCC? You mean remasters of the games made by bungie, not 343?
I was a fan since the original halo on launch. Then Halo 4 came out and was awful. I bought an Xbox one to play MCC and it launched completely broken and I couldn't play multiplayer online at all. Then I bought Halo 5. The single player was probably the worst in the series and multiplayer was riddled with micro transactions.
The only reason I'll be playing Infinite is because it'll be free on game pass, but my expectations are extremely low for it.
I might not speak for everyone, but neither do you. Its impossible to deny that Halo's popularity is way below where it was when Bungie was developing the games, thanks to the direction 343 took the series.
You say thanks to the direction 343 took the series but Halo Reach was VERY poorly received
eh, let people have their opinions. no need to be insulting about it.
i loved halo 4 and even more 5 despite their short comings. i cant imagine i wont love infinite, but that said, i am expecting a much superior game to both of their previous titles. still, i also know not everyone will be pleased - its an impossibility with halo i think - and thats fine.
If it's concerning for Halo, it's also concerning for Ghost of Tsushima cause Sucker Punch were hiring for a similar role around 4-5 months ago. I don't think it's anything to worry about unless it's to do with the main underlying narrative and primary characters.
Games are scalable now. There's no need to cancel. Just down res/grade
I'm so desperate to see Halo/343i succeed with Infinite and I guess lots of people feel the same way too... with 5 years of dev time and Coalition delivering in only 3 the pressure for 343i must be enormous.
Everyone is expecting 5 years to translate into a product that is twice as good... yet with Slipspace Engine I really don't have a clue how much time they really have to craft the game.
The Engine is supposed to make things easier for 343i but how often have we heard new engines causing a nightmare?
What also makes me really nervous is that with the lead composer having left there should be a whole cast of contributers yet we have only heard of one.
I guess the bottom line is that Infinite has huge potential yet there is the same amount of risk involved...
Everyone is expecting 5 years to translate into a product that is twice as good... yet with Slipspace Engine I really don't have a clue how much time they really have to craft the game.
The Engine is supposed to make things easier for 343i but how often have we heard new engines causing a nightmare?
What also makes me really nervous is that with the lead composer having left there should be a whole cast of contributers yet we have only heard of one.
I guess the bottom line is that Infinite has huge potential yet there is the same amount of risk involved...
I didn't say it was the doom of the company. Like I explained, I am concerned about the game.
Good to get info directly from the source. Looking forward to Halo Infinite. :)
