Halo Infinite: The troubled development that led to a successful game in Jason Schreier’s tale

There was already the idea that the production of Halo Infinite had been difficult and that 343 Industries was having a hard time, just look at the demo that was presented at the Xbox Games Showcase in the summer of 2020. But only now we know what happened behind the scenes, thanks to Jason Schreier, a Bloomberg video game journalist. On the day of Halo Infinite’s release, Schreier published his article which paints enormous difficulties in game development, from work tools to the lack of skilled staff on the team.

In addition to the game engine based on fairly old code, with parts dating back to when Bungie was still in charge of Halo, Microsoft’s policies did not allow 343 Industries to keep people on the team for more than 18 months, which made it extremely difficult. keep people with experience.

By adding this to the internal disputes that existed within the team itself, the recipe for disaster was essentially created. The game was only saved thanks to Microsoft’s decision to take on Joseph Staten, lead author of the first three Halo. The decision came after the reveal of the Halo Infinite demo on Xbox Game Showcase, which spawned Craig’s infamous memes.

Joseph Staten has asked Microsoft to postpone the game, scheduled for November 2020, to coincide with the launch of the new Xbox Series X / S consoles. Surprisingly, Microsoft agreed and the team had more time to get the game back on track, but there were big sacrifices, especially when it came to content.

The Bloomberg article claims that nearly two-thirds of Halo Infinite was cut from the final version. Initially, the open world would be huge, similar in size to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The final version is only a fraction of the content the team has produced in five years (development began shortly after the release of Halo 5).

Source: Bloomberg