A former employee of 343 Industries has shared a behind-the-scenes insight into the troubled development of Halo Infinite.
Back in July 2020, Halo Infinite was officially revealed to the world with an eight-minute gameplay presentation. It was supposed to be Halo’s big moment to showcase what the Xbox Series X can do, not to mention that this is one of Microsoft’s leading IPs.
Sadly, however, the reveal was far from glorious, and in truth, it was very underwhelming, to say the least, and didn’t look all that “next-gen”.
Following a backlash, Microsoft and 343 Industries subsequently decided to delay Halo Infinite from being an Xbox Series X|S launch title and pushed it back to the back end of 2021.
There have been various rumblings of behind-the-scenes shenanigans at 343 Industries, none of which we can officially confirm at this time. However, an alleged former employee of the development studio has potentially confirmed what many of us had suspected.
The alleged information was posted on Resetera and was brought to light by respected video games journalist, Jason Schreier. At this time we must keep in mind, however, that until the reports are confirmed, we must take the rumours with a pinch of salt.
The post on Resetera talks about the executives being overly ambitious and pushing the developers too hard resulting in “crunch” working hours.
Thankfully, despite the reported behind-the-scenes troubles, the former 343 Industries employee believes that Halo Infinite will “still be great.” Here’s what was posted on Resetera:
- Overall feeling on Halo Infinite: “In fact, I think the finished product will still be great. The story is a big improvement, and the gameplay is much richer, though the development cycle is too long. Don’t expect it to be an epoch-making masterpiece.“
- The company executives were overly ambitious. They wanted to make Halo Infinite a semi-open world game, so the engine needed to be changed significantly. They had to make the game and develop the engine at the same time (Due to engine defects, many workflows were not ideal, though they are now much more improved than before).
- Last year’s disastrous demo was because many engine features were not fully implemented at that time.
- For a variety of reasons, the game content compared to the original idea has been cut (same for multiplayer). “This has led to some things I’ve made over the years that no one will probably ever see.“
- The team at 343 (especially the low-level employees) works very hard, and many of them have experienced working overtime until the early hours of the morning in the past few years. (Crunch confirmed 🙁
- Now he works at Certain Affinity, still doing some HI outsourcing work, and he feels good to be out of 343’s baggage.
However, as I said before, these are unconfirmed rumours, but Jason Schreier is on the case and will be looking into these reports, as confirmed by the journalist responding to a fan’s tweet.
The Halo franchise means a lot to millions of fans, and as a fan since the beginning, it was sad to witness that July reveal. The following backlash and now continued reports of troubles behind the scenes are not mentioned, all hit hard for fans.
I hope that the developers at 343 aren’t under too much strain and I hope that Halo infinite releases in a state that the series deserves. Unfortunately, I have serious reservations at this time.
What are your thoughts on the alleged state of Halo Infinite? Let us know across our social media channels.
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Featured Image Credit: 343 Industries