A brand new report signifies that Microsoft’s layoffs earlier this month have compelled important modifications at its subsidiary 343 Industries, the corporate behind the Halo sequence of video video games.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier wrote Tuesday that the layoffs have put Redmond, Wash.-based 343 right into a place the place it’s “all however ranging from scratch.”
It was beforehand identified that Microsoft’s latest spherical of layoffs had impacted a number of firms in its gaming division, together with Bethesda Recreation Studios and ZeniMax Media, however not the extent to which every firm was affected. IGN reported that 25% of 343 Industries’ workers had been let go.
The layoffs led to a spherical of rumors that 343 would transition into a task as a writer, the place it might farm out its growth efforts on Halo to contractors. 343 studio head Pierre Hintze took to Twitter on Jan. 21 to deal with the rumors, claiming that the corporate “will proceed to develop Halo now and sooner or later.”
Schreier alleges, primarily based on leaked inner paperwork, that no less than 95 builders had been axed at 343 earlier this month. That might symbolize someplace between 10% and 20% of the corporate’s staff.
GeekWire has reached out to Microsoft and 343 Industries for remark.
343’s final huge recreation was Halo Infinite, which was successful with critics and followers upon its launch for PC and Xbox in Dec. 2021. Within the 13 months since its debut, nonetheless, Infinite repeatedly got here underneath hearth for its sluggish content material launch schedule, with main sequence options like cooperative marketing campaign mode and the Forge map creator solely displaying up 11 months after Infinite’s debut.
Beforehand, 343 had described Halo Infinite as a “religious reboot” for the general Halo franchise, in addition to a platform that the corporate might regularly construct upon. By the unique plan, there wouldn’t have been one other new Halo recreation for years after Infinite‘s launch; 343 would’ve simply saved releasing content material packs for Infinite.
Infinite‘s troubled growth appears to have put 343 on the chopping block, nonetheless. After the layoffs, the corporate is reportedly shifting its total path with Halo. This reportedly contains shifting on to a brand new recreation from Halo Infinite; using outdoors contractors like Sure Affinity, which already contributed to work on Infinite; and switching from the internally-developed Slipspace engine to Epic’s Unreal.
