Halo Infinite's Multiplayer Lead Has Left 343 Industries

Feeling pretty mixed about this. Honestly it’s a fun flawed game. The challenge system is one of the most egregious implementation in recent memory.

We don’t know the details but 343 and Microsoft have likely caused a lot of these exits. Most like staff burning out due to lack of staff do those who stay have to do more.

You see a lot of this in big projects. Hopefully they can roll out content and fixes quick enough. Hoping for more campaign content and when they add coop.

Even he realized their matchmaking is a lost cause apparently. This probably tops my list as one of the best games with the worst possible systems in history.

@Savage_Joe I’d be hesitant to blame one person but he has to take a certain amount of the flack.

Making the multiplayer F2P has got to be the biggest double-edged sword going.

On one hand, F2P means a much larger audience, but meaning the game demands constant content and updates to keep people engaged. Something they have failed to do.

If it wasn't F2P, they could focus on maps and game modes without the huge focus on battle passes. Obviously the negative would be the player base would be lower.

@BrilliantBill yea, but they can’t assume all blame.

@BrilliantBill wouldn't be so sure about putting blame on a "lead" individual. BP and F2P models are decided by management, and led
almost exclusively by return projections.
If anything, MP core gameplay-wise wasn't that bad, and I would assume this man just had enough of succeeding but still globally failing due to uncontrollable factors..

Oddly enough. I’ve gotten back into halo mp after not touching anything but the campaign from release until mid February. It’s been a blast! I don’t mind the progression system. Though I’ve never played another MP game extensively (never gotten into COD, Overwatch, Fortnite, Apex, etc. ) so I don’t know what to compare it to. I will say I hate tactical slayer. Either some of those people are too good or they literally have cheats. I’ll have someone smoke me from across the map when coming out of a room where they had absolutely had no clue I was there. Or sometimes I’ll spawn get killed from across the map.

Other than that I’m loving it. But I get what people are saying about how it’s going to need new content soon.

@blinx01 Agreed. And the sad thing is that even though they went down the F2P route the Steam player count is usually between 7-15K. So it hasn't even paid off. I get what they were trying to do, but they couldn't pull it off and it's very hard to get players to return one they drop off.

@blinx01 What is missing here is that Free to Play gives them a much larger POTENTIAL audience. Meanwhile Infinite's current population is that of a game on life support.

The issue with that is: assuming people that play free to play games even want to play Halo to begin with.

Whilst some may “take time to recharge batteries” between jobs reality is most people don’t leave one job without another in place. We have bills and mortgages - I suspect even higher paid guys like this - it would suggest he may have been politely shown the door. Allowed to keep his dignity and own narrative and avoid bad PR for all but yeah you don’t just walk out of jobs. Anyone reading this disagreeing is either very privileged or very young.

@InterceptorAlpha exactly. Nail on head. Focusing on delivering a rich Halo that players that want to play halo would keep playing should have been key. F2P market is companies constantly chasing that Fortnite gold which no one else gets close to. Especially in a similar game.

It's normal for a few people to leave after a project launches. I would not assume that this has anything to do with Microsoft, 343, or the current state of the game.

If this is the only Halo for the next 10 years like people are saying (I have my doubts on that) then it wouldnt be very stimulating for someone accustomed to building a project from the ground up. I dont think he wanted to continue working on the same game for such a long time.

Stressful job…….. everybody wanting more & more………. Probably the best thing he’s every done

Well if multiplayer is that bad as some say on here and player count bad, I know nothing about this.

Then get and make some campaign expansions and make them dam AAA in every way.

I’m sure this studio needs managing a lot better, hope someone is stepping in from above, to bring this studio up to the level of Turn 10, Playground games, Coalition etc.
playground games is the only studio that have produced a very top end AAA since the series consoles released.
And we probably not going to get another until November 2022, Starfield and hopefully that will be top end AAA and release on time.
Think about it, NOVEMBER 2022, series consoles 2 years old and IF! Starfield delivers and with FH5 only 2 top end AAA games.
Lucky we have top end AAA games to play from third parties on our series consoles.
Come Microsoft get your studios together and delivering, us series console owners and GPU members like myself deserve a lot better.

Basically if a big Xbox studio that is supposed to produce a big AAA game is not up to the job then don’t bother.
If they can’t produce a game of high AAA standards like FH5, HFW, Elden Ring, Mario Odyssey then pack up their bags and send them home.
Simple as that for me.
This is Microsoft, this is meant to be top end AAA, This is our loved Halo, sort your studios out.

It's probably way too late now, but just maybe it's time for Microsoft to move on from 343 as far as handling their flagship franchise. Halo Infinite has been a dumpster fire.

If 343 treat their employees like they treat gamers and fan base, I'd quit too.

Ya know, I don't really see the need in announcing to the world that you've left a company, especially in the world of gaming. It immediately becomes a controversial topic that always looks bad on the company. Although, considering the state of MP this actually looks really bad on the individual that left, especially if MP fixes start coming in soon that should have been there long ago. Dude probably got let go.

@blinx01 "If it wasn't F2P, they could focus on maps and game modes without the huge focus on battle passes. Obviously the negative would be the player base would be lower."

I 100% agree with the first part, disagree somehwat with the second.

Halo MCC, which released as a full price title, and piecemeal, and was just a collection of old titles, was getting around 6k to 10k players a month before Infinite launched. So I'm just going to average that out to 8k.

Halo Infinite is already down to 10k average players. If it is able to maintain that level of population over two years like MCC did, I'd be very surprised. So it doesn't even look like F2P increased the player count by that much.

My stance, as it has been for years, is that Halo has its audience. These are the ones playing it, regardless of whether it's F2P or paid. And everybody else, all the modern shooter fans, all the F2Players, they don't care about Halo, especially after 10 years of 343i. It's no good offering that group F2P, Battle Royale, fast paced, modern mechinc'd shooting action, becuase they have that in spades in other titles. Titles they have already formed an attachment to. So trying to pry them away was just foolish.

As I've been saying for years. MS should have scaled down Halo development to match its audience. And any growth would have been a natural one, rather than the forced growth they tried to inflict and essentially killed the reputation of the brand in the process.

@xMightyMatt14x Don’t worry, this weeks event with Mangler SWAT makes me want to throw my controller across the room. I would love to hear why they thought it was a good idea, it’s pure trash.