Phil Spencer: 343 Remains 'Critically Important' To The Success Of Halo

Bonnie Ross cared more about her career than the devotion of real fans, and it shows.

Everyone gave Microsoft crap for micromanaging their studios, and keeping them on a tight leash. But over the last couple of years… they’ve massively loosen that grip. And while it been great for 2nd party studios who can manage themselves. It seems that Microsoft’s studios can’t function without the ever watchful eyes of Big Daddy Microsoft. Maybe it time to reel back in that leash Microsoft especially for 343. Manage them how you managed Bungie.

Halo 7 confirmed lol

Halo, gears, Forza, Halo, gears, Forza (tv, sports) 😂

@Floki "Manage them how you managed Bungie." By ensuring they're bought by Sony? . They get to skip the whole Activision step, it's one stop shopping now...

@NEStalgia I mean… So far, the best years of Bungie was when they was under Microsoft management. They haven’t exactly proven that they could handle self managing themselves (not all studios deserve to be independent). So it was good Sony bought them if Microsoft wasn’t given the chance to repurchase them. They need that soft nurturing love of momma Sony.

But 343, definitely need some strict management.

It is shame it came to this and of course a shame that Halo Infinite did not become what it should have been.
But what I hope is Phil and the team have learnt from this and moving forward know when to micromanage a studio and when not to.

I mean, I’m definitely sure 343i needed micromanagement and dealing with, but you will probably find Tango Games who just released HiFi Rush were left to it, the same for Playground games with FH5.
The trick is knowing when and monitoring you studios correctly.

The one redeeming feature of Infinite is that the gameplay was good. It looks like 343 will get at least one more shot at Halo so let’s hope they can take that and actually build a great Halo game. Halo Infinite was a good game, but Halo needs to be great.

@Fenbops
Totally agree there, the gameplay fps and the added grapple hook was spot on for me. Could have not been better.
Let’s hope this time we am outstanding AAA game.
I also definitely it will be this new generation only and that’s a good thing in my opinion.
I wonder if they also realised that they also couldn’t go forward to much if they had to keep including last generation.

Happy to see Spencer confirming Halo as part of Xbox going forward and while I'm in the minority I still think 343i are the studio to keep making Halo games. They just need to find that extra something to truly elevate their Halo games from very good to great Halo games😁.

@Floki I think there is more than one 1st party studio Microsoft and Phil should be taking a tight grip on. And watch closely. Properly manage them.

Well they need to do a better job then Phil
Tbh the damage is done. I don’t even count their games when thinking about halo.

They need to fire snickerdoodle if they are going to start doing anything right.

@S1ayeR74 I guess Rare would be the second… They’re probably next on the chopping block.Turn 10 and The Coalition have done remarkably well. I’m willing to give The Initiative the benefit of the doubt as they are still a young studio and haven’t failed multiple times unlike 343…

ZeniMax Media’s studios are still considered a separate entity from Xbox Game Studios, so are managed by properly by Bethesda.

@Floki Well, Turn 10 is delaying its game, although we never had a set release date for Forza, just a time frame, and The Coalition team seemed to have disagreements about the creative direction to take and half the hit team seemed to have left? So whilst not as bad as others, still not brilliant either.
With any luck stuff will settle down and MS will stop announcing release dates or games prematurely. Take State Of Decay 3, I’m super stoked for that since they announced it, but it’s clear now that when they announced it the game was years from release! Nothing has been shown of it since which means it’s still in deep development.

@S1ayeR74 Turn 10 has released 7 games on time since back to the very first Xbox while maintaining a high level of quality. They aren’t just sitting around twiddling their thumbs as we been actual able to test and see some of the work they’ve been doing. A slight delay of 1 game is not a red flag that Microsoft needs to crack down on a studio. If Forza Motorsport come out and it worse than the previous entry then maybe.

Internal disagreements about the creative direction to take and team members leaving is something literally all studios go through while developing a game. Unless the game come out and have issues. That stuff isn’t a good enough reason for Microsoft to crack down on the studio who has managed to release 3 good products.

Releasing 4 major title back to back with multiple brand damaging issues is a reason to crack down on a studio

343 has completely mishandled Halo after part 4, it’s time to hand it over to a different studio at this point. It’s a shame that what once was considered a bonafide system selling series has just become a footnote. It’s just been one disaster after another, they just don’t know what to do with the series anymore.

@Floki 343i, Rare and The Initiative(0 footage of PD in ages) all need to be put on a leash by MS.

Halo's dead, get over it. It's time to move on!

@Floki Forza is their flagship game thought and it hasn’t had a small delay, then again no one has said what delay it has had, everyone has had to guess as Microsoft are awful at communication with its customers,
And secondly The Coalition hasn’t released any game, think you got yourself confused with my comment. And most studios don’t have several key high ranking employees leave, of course people can leave but they should do a better job at hiring, Microsoft is not beyond criticism.

@S1ayeR74 The Coalition has released 3 games (4 if you wanna include The Matrix Awakens)

@S1ayeR74 A ton of studios see several key figured leave all the time. Look at Toshihiro Nagoshi leaving Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio with several other key employees; or Raphaël Colantonio leaving arkane with several key employees… etc. The list goes on and on and on.

@Floki Sorry I meant The Initiative studio. Thru are the ones in a bit of a mess, also the people leaving was quite public. I think because it was new and a dream team assembled by Microsoft themselves. No idea about the others you mentioned, still doesn’t give Microsoft a free pass and they need to try harder and do better.