The developer of Halo, 343 Industries, has addressed concerns about the franchise’s seemingly uncertain future following a rocky week. There’s a lot of history here, but to catch you up to speed, Halo is the franchise for Xbox and it was created by Bungie for the release of the original Xbox. The series was huge and a pillar of the console, but Bungie eventually decided to part ways with the series and handed the baton to 343 Industries which was built with the intention of carrying out the series going forward. Sadly, their games have been just ok and the ones that are good are burdened by all kinds of launch issues and post-launch struggles. Earlier this week, after a troublesome first year for Halo Infinite, 343 Industries was “hit hard” by layoffs as part of a larger Microsoft restructuring.
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This shakeup also sawย Halo Infinite creative director Joseph Staten leaving the company to join Xbox’s publishing division. It was troubling and rumors of single player DLC being canceled began swirling the internet, though insiders said no such DLC ever existed, so nothing changed in that area. Rumors also suggested that 343 was not going to be leading the charge on Halo going forward, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In a statement, 343 Industries head Pierre Hintze confirmed that Halo and Master Chief are “here to stay” and that 343 Industries would continue making future entries with “epic stories” and multiplayer.ย
Of course, it really remains to be seen in what way that materializes, but it doesn’t sound like it’s all doom and gloom for 343 Industries or the Halo series. Either way, Halo seems to be safe. Of course, it’s hard to imagine the franchise going away since it’s so unanimous with the Xbox brand. However, there has been a lot of criticism directed at 343’s handling of the series that rumors of the developer being pulled off the series weren’t exactly far-fetched.
What do you want to see from the future of Halo? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.