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Ex-Halo Infinite developers criticise "incompetent leadership" at Microsoft

ChorizoPicozo

Gold Member
People who made a bad game that was likely a financial and business failure unhappy at being fired , who would have guessed.

Sonygaf loves to pile on MS!
Ky3j9qa.jpg


I dunno.....maybe you you reap what you sow.
 

ZehDon

Member
There is a new thread on resertera concerning 343i. It’s a rumor of course.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/ru...ign-dlcs-scrapped-focus-on-mp-support.677638/

Should it be a new thread and if so can someone make it. I don’t think I’d do a very good job. Haha.

I know people don’t typically like RE on here, but I thought the thread was important.
Explosive shit. Tweet chain starts here:

  • 2023 plans haven't changed; still focused on MP for 2023
  • Joseph Staten had a small team aiming to ship multiple Campaign DLCs. This plan was scrapped after Hintze and the others came in.
  • Halo Infinite missed its financial and "other" goals.
  • Microsoft seems to have halted "active development" at 343i, and they're now just "franchise coordinators"
  • Other than Halo Infinite MP, 343i will just make sure other studios can create Halo projects that respect the IP
  • Slipspace Engine is still around, and will be available to all other studios working on Halo
  • Campaign was not profitable, so they decided to focus on MP. Might be why Staten left?
 
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Katajx

Gold Member
Wasn't Halo in development for like 6-7 years? And even after all that time the game was released massively unfinished? Seems to me that these devs are given way too much time and money to make these kinds of mistakes. MS owns more studios than Nintendo or Sony yet they basically skipped an entire year last year. Their biggest game for this year is one they bought half (or more) finished. What are all of these people working on and where is the urgency to ship some shit?
Yeah there is no reason that there shouldn’t have been more to this game. Another reason why I don’t agree with blanket statements saying games should just be delayed. Infinite was delayed a year and was still barebones.

That’s not a time issue. That’s a resources and management issue.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
I gotta ask - what exactly should have been done re: halo via the management? Like what specifically was the issue - more time needed? Because from the outside it looks completely baffling that they spent over five years and didn’t have a fully formed product yet - like I don’t know what caused that
Iirc they blamed Covid and the shift to remote work but people were calling for heads to roll at 343 wayyyyyy before that. Incompetent management and not hiring the right people are likely the main issue and it got progressively worse until it blew up in their faces.
 

VAVA Mk2

Member
Look at that poor Chief... they are starving him to death
She needs all his food money to build more shelves for all of her female leaders in the gaming industry awards since that is what her focus was on instead of what she was hired to steward and nurture.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I'm sure Microsoft does some things poorly, it's bound to happen. Especially up top. But I refuse to believe it's all on the "higher-ups" or folks "up top" at Microsoft. As soon as Halo touched the hands of 343i, the quality changed.
 
Hey, let's just go ahead and hand over COD, and all of Activision's other IPs, to the same people who oversaw the degradation of their main franchise and can't seem to get any good games out. What could go wrong?
 
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Capcom's last AAA release was in 2021. They have multiple new titles announced for 2023.
Insomniac's last AAA release was in 2021. They ALSO have multiple new titles announced for 2023.
Santa Monica just released their newest game a couple months ago.
Fromsoftware's last AAA release was in 2022, and they have DLC planned for it.
Guerilla Games' last AAA release was ALSO in 2022, and they also have DLC planned for it.

The Coalition's last AAA release was in 2020, debatably 2019. No new game announced for 2023.

I expect at the very least an announcement for a game coming out in late 2023/2024.
So? The studios I mentioned release content regularly and aren't anything like 343i. Your comments lacked the balance you were talking about. There is only one 343i.
Shit happens. Sony Santa Monica got funding for a game that made it pretty far in development and got canned. Then the director left and made Jedi Fallen Order. Guess Sony can't tell who is competent oh my god.
You should always check the source of criticism to determine whether it's even worth reading. If MS was rushing stuff out the criticism would be just as loud.

The games MS has released recently have all rated well including Halo. Hopefully with the changes made to 343i they can get a better release cadence. The Forge drop was very popular.

Sonygaf loves to pile on MS! More threads! More threads!
welcome origin GIF
 

daTRUballin

Member

I dunno, I find it hard to believe that it was completely Rare's decision 100% to focus on Kinect when MS literally put one of their own executives, Scott Henson, in charge of Rare as the studio head from 2010 to about 2013 or so. Why would they need a guy from MS to be literally inside their studio on a daily basis for 3 years?
Losing Bungie was a huge misstep since it was entirely avoidable from how I understand it, but Rare is another story. Rare was purchased by MS after the top guys left to form their own development company so what MS ended up getting was a shell of the company that was, and it didn't help that MS corporate tried to have them conform to MS culture. I think they are on the right track now if Sea of Thieves is the benchmark to go by, a wildly successful and polished game. Everwild once it releases will tell us all we need to know.

Not true. I don't know why so many people believe that a majority of Rare's talent left before the buyout when in reality, it was maybe around 10 people overall. The majority stayed until the late 00's/early 10's and some are still there even today.
 
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ZehDon

Member
""The reason for both of those things is incompetent leadership up top during Halo Infinite development causing massive stress on those working hard to make Halo the best it can be."

Hmmm, maybe I'm wrong here, but personally, I don't read this as pointing the finger at Microsoft's leadership, so much as 343i's. Microsoft is the publisher, 343i would have the "leadership" that an employee would see or interact with. Not sure, hopefully we get some clarification here.
 

Topher

Gold Member
""The reason for both of those things is incompetent leadership up top during Halo Infinite development causing massive stress on those working hard to make Halo the best it can be."

Hmmm, maybe I'm wrong here, but personally, I don't read this as pointing the finger at Microsoft's leadership, so much as 343i's. Microsoft is the publisher, 343i would have the "leadership" that an employee would see or interact with. Not sure, hopefully we get some clarification here.

That's how I read it as well.
 
Not true. I don't know why so many people believe that a majority of Rare's talent left before the buyout when in reality, it was maybe around 10 people overall. The majority stayed until the late 00's/early 10's and some are still there even today.
We don’t have to argue about it. I was an adult before MS bought Rare. Was reading about this stuff in real time.
 
""The reason for both of those things is incompetent leadership up top during Halo Infinite development causing massive stress on those working hard to make Halo the best it can be."

Hmmm, maybe I'm wrong here, but personally, I don't read this as pointing the finger at Microsoft's leadership, so much as 343i's. Microsoft is the publisher, 343i would have the "leadership" that an employee would see or interact with. Not sure, hopefully we get some clarification here.
Eh. MS writes the checks. It’s on them since if they didn’t like the direction or results they could have made changed at will.
 
That doesn't mean what you read at the time wasn't misinformation. It's not just you. It's a common myth that's been spread for 2 decades now.
I’ve corroborated it multiple times since. Followed the devs that left. Looked up the info before my last reply to confirm I was correct. Like I said, we don’t have to argue about this.
 

Kumomeme

Member
dont worry. later once phil made some speech about how they care about people, all is forgiven.

in the end this is all evil sony fault.
 

ZehDon

Member
Eh. MS writes the checks. It’s on them since if they didn’t like the direction or results they could have made changed at will.
... they did? Last year they fired the CEO and gutted the team lead positions after the company failed to deliver. Third strike, you're out. Microsoft's biggest fault with 343i was actually trusting them - and trusting their creatives is actually a good thing.
 
Newsflash, they're all responsible. Top to bottom.
  • No vision
  • Poor decision making, investments for Warzone, BTB, esports, TV show, merchandise etc instead of pushing Halo campaign PvE/loot/BR/classic H2A stuff etc.
  • Worse PR/comms
  • Lack of innovation
  • Completely missed market trends over 5-10 years
  • Broken ass games repeatedly
  • Party systems and UI are just whack, apart from current day MCC which is awesome
  • Playlist management and sustain is pretty horrible, it's not the effort, more so the selections and weights combined with slow cadence on changes, complete lack of player/party control for what to play and when
  • Behind the times SlipSpace engine, when Unreal could have pushed games and show into something special
  • Changes for the sake of changes
  • Maps and modes are trash compared to Halo 2 or 3, Max is going to bring it with the new Tatanka battle royale mode, old school Halo for the modern FPS game, oh baby
  • QA is utter garbage
  • Management bite off more than 343 can chew syndrome time and time again
  • Contractors continually turning over, lack of cohesion
  • Always overtime, over promised and under delivered
  • Stories that were completely shit in game, repeatedly
  • Stories that had no saga, trilogy or sense of continuity
  • Art that was perfect in Halo 2 anniversary cutscenes from Blur but reworking everything 343's way, such a waste of talent and resources recreating each game
  • UIs that confuse, break, are not real time
  • Networking issues across all games, major issues that take months and iterations and months again
  • Always having a drop off the cliff for population post launch
Almost every aspect of Halo 4/MCC/5/Infinite has issues from the admins, executives, designers to developers and management including MS/Xbox overseeing 343 for all those years and games releases. Anyone at MS/Xbox/343 turning on each other are just showing a lack of professionalism. If you did good work you have an awesome highlight reel for your resume. If you produced shit, good luck out there and better luck next time.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
""The reason for both of those things is incompetent leadership up top during Halo Infinite development causing massive stress on those working hard to make Halo the best it can be."

Hmmm, maybe I'm wrong here, but personally, I don't read this as pointing the finger at Microsoft's leadership, so much as 343i's. Microsoft is the publisher, 343i would have the "leadership" that an employee would see or interact with. Not sure, hopefully we get some clarification here.
That's how I read it as well.
Well, they did sack those very people towards the end of last year. So yeah, I am going with it meaning 343, and Phil Spencer should not have virtue signaled Bonnie Ross with all of those awards on stage around the time she was receiving backlash for the handling of the studio/series by gamers, before she/they actively delivered.
 
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Nydius

Member
Sonygaf loves to pile on MS! More threads! More threads!
Telling the truth isn't "piling on". Microsoft has a horrid track record of managing the studios they own and their second/third party agreements. They've been bad at it for 20 years now. I say that as someone who has bought every single Xbox at launch, from the very first one with the Duke controller to the Series X.

It's almost sad to think about all the studios and properties they ran into the ground. FASA, Bizarre Creations, Lionhead, just to name a few. I'll even put RARE in that list, since they basically ruined RARE by turning them into their Kinect studio for several years. Imagine where Xbox could be if they had fostered creative development on properties like MechAssault, Crimson Skies, Kameo, Viva Pinata, Perfect Dark, Project Gotham Racing, and even the Shadowrun class-based shooter reboot (which was ahead of its time). They had party games like Fusion Frenzy and even a potentially legitimate competitor to Wipe'out'' in Quantum Redshift.

That's just first party side and doesn't get into evaluating how they mishandled second/third party contracts, like their work with Sakaguchi's Mistwalker Studios. Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey could have been franchise JRPGs for the platform. Or Artoon, who developed a solid platformer that could have become a kid-friendly mascot for the Xbox brand (Blinx).

Alas, no -- Microsoft became singularly focused on Halo, Gears, and Forza at the expense of everything else.
And now they've bungled Halo to the point where the future of the franchise is in question..
 
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THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
This just in: Employees who were just let go are not happy. In other news, the sky is blue and sometimes it's cloudy and it rains. A man ate 3000 burgers and is very sick. Nintendo released an underpowered console.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Telling the truth isn't "piling on". Microsoft has a horrid track record of managing the studios they own and their second/third party agreements. They've been bad at it for 20 years now. I say that as someone who has bought every single Xbox at launch, from the very first one with the Duke controller to the Series X.

It's almost sad to think about all the studios and properties they ran into the ground. FASA, Bizarre Creations, Lionhead, just to name a few. I'll even put RARE in that list, since they basically ruined RARE by turning them into their Kinect studio for several years. Imagine where Xbox could be if they had fostered creative development on properties like MechAssault, Crimson Skies, Kameo, Viva Pinata, Perfect Dark, Project Gotham Racing, and even the Shadowrun class-based shooter reboot (which was ahead of its time). They had party games like Fusion Frenzy and even a potentially legitimate competitor to Wipe'out'' in Quantum Redshift.

That's just first party side and doesn't get into evaluating how they mishandled second/third party contracts, like their work with Sakaguchi's Mistwalker Studios. Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey could have been franchise JRPGs for the platform. Or Artoon, who developed a solid platformer that could have become a kid-friendly mascot for the Xbox brand (Blinx).

Alas, no -- Microsoft became singularly focused on Halo, Gears, and Forza at the expense of everything else.
And now they've bungled Halo to the point where the future of the franchise is in question..

People keep saying Halo is wrecked but the overall reviews and sales say otherwise.
Plus a tv series. It's still popular, and Halo 7 redemption would do just fine.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
People keep saying Halo is wrecked but the overall reviews and sales say otherwise.
Plus a tv series. It's still popular, and Halo 7 redemption would do just fine.
What sales? The series no longer charts, especially infinite. It used to be on top of the world at one time.
 

Topher

Gold Member
This just in: Employees who were just let go are not happy. In other news, the sky is blue and sometimes it's cloudy and it rains. A man ate 3000 burgers and is very sick. Nintendo released an underpowered console.

With 10k in the process of being let go, I'd imagine the disgruntled employee saga will get worse before it gets better. Especially in the age of Twitter.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
With 10k in the process of being let go, I'd imagine the disgruntled employee saga will get worse before it gets better. Especially in the age of Twitter.
I would think most employees are smart enough to take their severance and move forward. Whining about your ex-employer on a public forum is like whining about your ex-girlfriend on a date, it’s a horrible idea.
 
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Nydius

Member
Plus a tv series. It's still popular, and Halo 7 redemption would do just fine.

I never said Halo was "wrecked", just that its future was questionable. It's likely to never have a single player campaign again especially since most of the people who played Infinite only played the F2P Multiplayer.
 

Topher

Gold Member
I would think most employees are smart enough to take their severance and move forward. Whining about your ex-employer on a public forum is like whining about your ex-girlfriend on a date, it’s a horrible idea.

Common sense, right? And yet the people go on twitter all the time talking shit about their previous employers. I was always told "never burn your bridges". Just strange.

But you have me thinking. Could those severance packages have conditions to not publicly speak ill of Microsoft in order to continue the benefits?
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
I never said Halo was "wrecked", just that its future was questionable. It's likely to never have a single player campaign again especially since most of the people who played Infinite only played the F2P Multiplayer.

That's not true at all, there is a crap ton of people who just play halo for the single player. The next game will definitely have it, and likely upgraded.
In fact most people on this board say the single player on infinite was "ok" to "great" and that it's the multiplayer that let them down and failed to attract as many players as expected.
 
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