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Halo Infinite Creative Director Leaves Company [Update: Lead Producer on Campaign leaves as well]
- Thread starter Strakt
- Start date
It's entirely possible, especially when it comes to a franchise like Halo, where 343i have shown a tendency to have very little idea what to do or where to go with it, and where they have gone has been largely meh.
Lots of folk here seem to be confusing the roles of producers and creative directors.
A producer in a dev studio is usually responsible for organising schedules and ordering the pizzas when crunch time arrives...not to belittle their roles (no game would ship without them having done a decent job) but they aren't usually the creative force behind a project.
A producer in a dev studio is usually responsible for organising schedules and ordering the pizzas when crunch time arrives...not to belittle their roles (no game would ship without them having done a decent job) but they aren't usually the creative force behind a project.
true, but according to the press release given after longo left, Mary Olson was supposed to "take charge of the Campaign team on Halo Infinite", which makes her leaving only 2 months later just odd.
Nope there's no way they delay the game unless the console gets delayed. And you best believe they ain't delaying the console launch. There still have enough time for everything to come together.
yes, very concerning stuff. Very concerning. What do you suggest they do now?
If anything, this just signals a lack of confidence in the product from the higher ups. If you have a game coming along smoothly that has all the potential to be a massive hit both reception and sales-wise, it would make zero sense to leave in the most crucial year of development like this. Stuff coming together and the end being in sight would mean improved morale, not lessened. You'd want to be a part of the team when a game like this launches. These back-to-back departures kinda show me that they aren't willing to stick around for launch, which is certainly worrying.
We'll see. It might be just a freak coincidence, but it could also mean core development trouble.
Maybe she felt out of her depth or was just poached by the new, local studio... not unheard of.
Her previous roles leaned heavily on the audio side of things so I'm doubtful she would have had too much say on any fundamental design/gameplay choices, that's just a hunch on my part though.
And I would argue the game suffered for it. Parts of the game it was very apparent it had development problems.
Well said, I agree!
Let's be real, we still have no idea what this game even is. If there was some solid looking gameplay footage out in the wild to give the fans some confidence, this would be an entirely different conversation.
Yep. This is the problem of launch titles - you do not really have the option of delaying your big launch title.
So either MS release Scarlett without their tentpole title, or they delay the new console giving Sony a big advantage. Neither of those are going to happen. Infinite is coming out in holiday 2020 hell or high-water.
This comment is logical and makes sense.
This is just grasping at straws at best, knowing absolutely nothing about what is happening at 343. Not sure the "concern" is warranted.
I may be wrong but don't Producers work hand in hand with the design and creative teams? I'm guessing a studio as big as 343i with over 520+ devs and over 25 new job roles ( last week) won't have any issues filling these roles quickly (internally or outsourcing) as they would already have a number of producers and directors working on the project from the beginning.
XO19 is coming next month. Maybe you'll be singing a different tune.
I really don't see how it can be more important than the console itself. The console is assumed to arrive late 2020 and it's not like Halo gamers will ignore the next Xbox and buy a PS5 instead if Halo is delayed 3 months.
While i think the departure of these two people does indicate certain project leads being unsatisfied with the direction of the project and possibly even development being in a precarious state, i feel like it doesnt really neccisarily matter to the outcome of the project being good or not.
Uncharted 4 went through FAR more of a huge shift in development and still ended up being a good game, despite me not personally gelling with uncharted(i think that has more to do with me not liking uncharted in general though).
Of course, there is something to be said for the argument that the people who replaced amy henning were as capable, or more capable than she as creative leads whereas we have no real knowledge of the development team of Halo infinite. but at the same time, i still think the UC4 comparison applies.
Uncharted 4 went through FAR more of a huge shift in development and still ended up being a good game, despite me not personally gelling with uncharted(i think that has more to do with me not liking uncharted in general though).
Of course, there is something to be said for the argument that the people who replaced amy henning were as capable, or more capable than she as creative leads whereas we have no real knowledge of the development team of Halo infinite. but at the same time, i still think the UC4 comparison applies.
It's launching against a competing platform. If there was no competition and any consumer was going to buy a Scarlett console eventually sure, no problem. That isn't the world we live in though. People picking between a PS5 and Scarlett will pick PS5 if it has better games.
Coming out of the gate with strong exclusives is very important for MS, especially after this generation.
I mean it might seem negative, but you can't jump to strong conclusions. We'll know for sure once the game is revealed and people get hands on with it. We see more info and what not, then we'll know
To be fair, Halo hasn't been a launch title since Combat Evolved, so it wouldn't exactly be unusual.
If you're promoted to campaign lead of a game in a huge franchise, where you're confident in that it will blow minds and have an amazing reception, what exactly is the incentive for leaving? Wouldn't you want that milestone on your resumé?
I don't think leaving the studio 85-90% through production for what could be a better opportunity is going to ruin anyone's resume. And assuming that the leads of this game are concerned about how good it is feels more like wishful thinking than any reality.
2 devs have left out of more than 500. That's like 0.2% of the entire studio. I'm not sure 0.2% of the studio leaving means the entire team is worried about the game.
Yes they do, but in my experience working in game development studios, producers have more of a "shepherding" role, making sure milestones are hit, scheduling tasks and making sure the artists, designers etc have what they need to fulfill their tasks. I've never worked with a producer who has had a major impact on design or gameplay. Other studios may do things differently though.
the title update is misleading, the point isnt that a producer left, the PR that released alongside the director leaving said that this producer would now lead the campaign, but she has left 2 months after.
EDIT: i misread your post and didnt realize it was in response to someone else lol.
What I posted by the look of it. If you know any different, tell us. My reply was based on my experiences of a producers role (a very abridged version to be fair), as I wrote elsewhere, other studios may do things differently.
The power of compelling software should never be underestimated. Obviously unlike Nintendo Sony/Microsoft have the luxury of 3rd Party support. However the power of exclusive content to Microsoft's platform could be the difference to the platform selling after the initial launch period. Also could sway fence sitters to buy into the ecosystem and not the opposition. But that's just my opinion.
Obviously Halo Infinite is the only title we're currently aware of that's launching with the new consoles. So if they don't launch with it there's is potentially that from a software perspective there would be nothing to differentiate it from the competition. That would definitely not be ideal. In theory that would be advantage Sony. However we really don't know what Sony is releasing software wise at launch. There still a year out, an potential issues can still be rectified.
Damn.
MS must be demanding the impossible them to drop out like that.
Too much pressure having to deliver a BotW type system seller that looks and performs great on like 3 plattforms and offers great single player and multiplayer content.
sure it applies but I may be forgetting some details of that story now cos for some reason, I always thought Amy left just before UC4 shipped? i.e after her work on the project was done? I thought herself and Bruce stayed back just until the end of the project?
She left 5th March 2014, and the game released 10th May 2016 :p Also, it's well documented as a terrible time to have been working at the studio with how much work they had to do to retool it (covered in Blood, Sweat, and Pixels).
In regards to Uncharted 4 Amy and the co-director (I forget his name) left/fired around a year into the game's production. At least 9 months of progress had to be retooled in a hurried pace when Straley and Druckmann took the reigns. I remember it being described as a "Three year project done in two years".
Hopefully 343 aren't in that dire a situation and are able to release a high quality launch game for Scarlett, but having high level turnover so quickly and a year out is not good.
Hopefully 343 aren't in that dire a situation and are able to release a high quality launch game for Scarlett, but having high level turnover so quickly and a year out is not good.
Hopefully whatever detriment this causes doesn't bleed into the final product, I fucking love Halo.
She got fire and that also led to Straley leaving the AAA industry because of that
After how poor Gears 5 was, this news coupled with Halo supposedly being similar in structure, I really don't have high hopes for this game.