It seethes properly at Microsoft after the announcement of around 10,000 layoffs, which also affects the Xbox division. Ex-employees of Halo developer 343 Industries are now lashing out at Microsoft.
The dismissal of around 10,000 employees at Microsoft has apparently started a lot, especially because Halo developer 343 Industries is apparently badly affected, according to current reports. Even Halo Infinite director Joe Staten, a longtime veteran who worked on Halo at Bungie back in 1998, got it, he’s moving to Xbox Publishing. Staten took over the project management of Halo Infinite in 2020 to get the ailing cow off the ice.
But not only that, the announcements of the layoffs and Staten’s move have apparently aroused the anger of former employees of 343 Industries, who are now venting their anger on Twitter and leaving a good hair on Microsoft’s management policy in relation to the Halo series.
Patrick Wren spent eight years at 343 as a multiplayer designer before joining Respawn in October 2021 and is now working on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. “The layoffs at 343 shouldn’t have happened and Halo Infinite should be in better shape,” Wren tweeted. “The reason for both is the incompetent leadership at the top during the development of Halo Infinite…”. However, Wren’s criticism seems to focus on leading the game’s campaign team, while he has nothing but good things to say about leading the multiplayer team.
Tyler Owens, who also switched to Respawn and is now working on Apex Legends, criticizes Microsoft’s business practices in particular: “As a Halo fan, I’m really tired of Microsoft’s business practices and politics slowing down the cause I love Between contract policies abused for tax incentives and layoffs in the face of gargantuan profits/board bonuses, they doomed Halo.”
To what extent all this is justified, we as outsiders cannot judge. What is striking, however, is that quite a few high-ranking employees of 343 Industries have left the company, including even studio boss Bonnie Ross, who after all spent 15 years with the Halo developers, as well as multiplayer creative director Tom French and engineering director David Berger.
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