Head of 343 Industries Bonnie Ross has been speaking to CNET ahead of the launch of Halo Infinite's campaign, discussing the poor reaction to 2020's gameplay reveal in more detail, including how the team responded to it.
Ross explained that the demo showcased 343 having to make "a tremendous amount of cuts" to try and hit the original November 2020 release window, and people on the team were pointing out that a public unveiling was a bad idea:
"I do want to say there were multiple people on the team pointing out, 'Hey, I think this is wrong.' But we're all looking at it at home on whatever monitor with whatever color grading that we have. And that was a huge wakeup call for us. We did need to have those touch points with people coming in, sitting side by side — at a distance — and looking at monitors."
"We had people on the team already raising flags that we've cut too deep... And I think that was just more of a very public look in the mirror that, 'Yes, we did indeed cut corners that we shouldn't have cut,' and we needed to really take a step back and make sure that we were spending the time we needed."
After the gameplay reveal received such a poor reaction, the 343 Industries team ended up clearing out a section of their fourth floor and putting in monitors with different versions of the game along with some cameras — so that, regardless of whether the team could work from the office or not, everyone was evaluating the same screens.
And of course, we know what happened next — 343 ended up admitting that "we actually can't do it" in regards to hitting the original November 2020 release window, with the delay lasting 13 months in total. It was a huge blow to the Xbox community at the time, but based on the reaction to Halo Infinite in recent days and weeks, it definitely seems like it was for the best. Who knows, we could have had another Cyberpunk 2077 on our hands...
What are your thoughts on Ross's comments? Let us know down below.
[source cnet.com]
Comments 14
So glad that they delayed the launch.
I actually don't think it looked awful a year ago, but certainly not impressive.
The game they've released now definitely looks nice and scales well across the One and Series consoles.
The only question being why such a low res on the Series S? I'm hoping they can bump it up a little, it is dynamic after all.
To be blunt, they made tremendous cuts to get it launched in 2021 as well (local splitscreen, 2-player co-op, Forge, etc.).
Sure, those features are "coming", but most are months away. And the ugly reality here...and 343 is far from the only developer who's been guilty of this trend...is that we as consumers are getting less at the original point-of-sale than we used to, including with regards to overall quality and QC testing. What makes this even more egregious with Halo Infinite is that 343 obviously took the time to implement the business model side, prioritizing Battle Passes, F2P, and thousands of $$$ worth of skins before they even had a truly full game to sell. And as the review stated, that rush may well have cost the campaign in terms of its scenic variety; for a game labeled "Infinite", having an entire Halo ring with a single biome (described as the entire game mimicking Silent Cartographer) feels like an oversell...one that could have been improved upon with additional development time.
Beta releases used to be associated with PCs; now flagship titles for consoles are launching unfinished and full of technical issues. That's both on the industry as well as us consumers for putting up with/enabling it.
Great call on delaying the game but there is still the question of how did it get there and who was checking in with 343? How did no one know the status of the game after so many years? There was clear mismanagement going on and I'm still surprised that no one's head rolled as a result.
Hopefully future big projects are being checked in on here n there, no need for micromanagement...but 343i might need more frequent check ins if Staten ever leaves.
I'm glad they got the extra time and I'm enjoying the multiplayer but imagine what this game could have been if managed properly.
Thank God they delayed or the game would be as much of a joke as Cyberpunk was! Now it seems we really have one of the best Halo games in our hands, so kudos to them
@Krzzystuff “ There was clear mismanagement going on and I'm still surprised that no one's head rolled as a result.”
Chris Lee lost his job as director and they hired Joseph Staten to take over.
Glad it was delayed, I had no shortage of games to play, but a bit disappointed (based on reviews) at how much important story elements just occur off screen and we just get to find out via missable audio logs. 😞
@Hypnotoad107 isn't he still employed by Xbox or Microsoft?
The impact on marketing partners must have been a massive issue for Xbox and likely expensive. I just hope they really learned from this as it was an epic fail in many management levels. Said so back then as well.
As far as the game goes I'm loving the multiplayer and can't wait to play the campaign but it sucks knowing it could have been much better on all fronts.
This is just my opinion....
I truly believe that anything coming out their mouths at this point is pure damage control for whatever reason it may be.
With 343, I completely lost all respect for them when they took over for bungie and became biggest hypocrites in gaming with way they handled even the littlest thing... like their forums.
If you spoke the truth (constructively at that!) they would censor or ban you. But all the mods little buddies could personally insult people all they wanted and NOTHING ever happened to them. Hell the worst offender of this is now a community manager or of that level. Her name is after a cookie name, if you're curious. And she is straight trash.
Not trying to be negative. Just voicing my views of being a gamer of 40 years and Xbox fan since day one launch day.
And 6 years will really still only have half a game and one tree area to play in, no environment changes or effects or weather.
And to add insult to injury no pre download on consoles for the campaign.
@Dezzy70 See my comment above. They will do everything for damage control now.
@GuyinPA75
Been with Xbox since day one as well.
I know what you mean and feel the pain.
Hopefully they add back in what they cut, over the life of the game.
And even with a launch in 2021, a year later, there are still a ton of cut features.
It is absolutely heart breaking seeing Halo handled in this fashion. What have the even been doing for this last half decade plus?
On top of that, I can't help but ask, how does a studio head release 3 botched games, 4, 5, and now Infinite, and keep their job?
I can only hope that this isn't something they're going to make into a pattern with first party Gamepass games. Horizon 5 and now Infinite.
I would like to know how many iterations of this game there have been since Halo 5's release. From pre-production to release, how has Halo Infinite changed. The finished game barely resembles the announcement trailer. How much did they actually have when that released?
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