The future of Halo is still uncertain after the internal issues at 343 Industries and what happened with Halo Infinite, a title that fell short of fan expectations. According to recent reports, Microsoft will make significant changes to the management of the franchise, as it does not want the situation with the latest game to repeat.
Bathrobe Spartan, a well-known informant about the saga, revealed news that will undoubtedly worry some Master Chief fans and delight others. According to his sources, 343 Industries will no longer be responsible for developing future games in the series.
Instead, the studio will only work on pre-production, creating game concepts, and subsequently supervising development. On the other hand, he stated that 2 new projects in the saga are already on the way.
Microsoft no longer trusts 343 Industries for Halo, according to a report
Bathrobe Spartan stated that Microsoft no longer trusts 343 Industries to build the future of its flagship franchise after what happened with its most recent releases, including Halo Infinite. As a consequence, the tech giant supposedly decided to downsize various areas of the studio.
The source spoke with current and former 343 Industries employees, who revealed that the company underwent cuts last year and in 2024. It is estimated that the team went from having 500 employees to fewer than 280, losing members of the marketing and internal communication teams, which are now managed by Microsoft.
If 343 Industries indeed steps away from the development of the saga, it would mean that future installments would likely be created by other Xbox Game Studios teams or even third-party studios, but there are no details on this yet. Recently, 343 Industries made interesting hires to strengthen its ranks. If the information is confirmed, then the new team members would focus on initial design tasks and supervision.
Several Halo projects are reportedly in development
Additionally, Bathrobe Spartan stated that 2 major projects in the saga are already in development. It would take quite a while to learn about them, as they are still in the pre-production phase. Although there are no precise details about them, interesting speculations have been made.
It is said that one of them is the rumored remake of Halo: Combat Evolved. It is even said that this project will make the saga multiplatform and come to PlayStation. On the other hand, it is speculated that the other game is the next main installment in the series.
It is mentioned that one of the games will feature a multiplayer mode intended for a large number of players. Lastly, the source spoke about the future of Halo Infinite and emphasized what many feared: the game did not meet Microsoft's expectations.
For this reason, 343 Industries will supposedly focus only on supporting Forge and completing the development of some features planned long ago. For now, neither Xbox nor 343 Industries have confirmed this report, so for now, it is just a rumor.
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