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Former Bungie director joins 343 Industries to work on Halo Infinite

Bullet Club

Member

Former Bungie director joins 343 Industries to work on Halo Infinite​


A veteran Halo developer has returned to "help lead the future" of Halo Infinite.

What you need to know​

  • Former Bungie director Paul Bertone has joined 343 Industries to work on Halo Infinite.
  • Bertone has signed on as Technical Design Director. In this position, he will help bridge the gap between design and programming.
  • Bertone originally worked on Bungie's five Halo games before leaving the studio in 2012, working with other developers like Undead Labs before returning to Halo in 2022.
Joseph Staten, Head of Creative for Halo Infinite, has announced that former Bungie director Paul Bertone has joined 343 Industries to work on the flagship Xbox shooter as Technical Design Director. In this position, Bertone will help to bridge the gap between the studio's design and programming teams, ensuring that developers are able to create content with their tools smoothly and without hindrances.

"I’m happy to confirm veteran Paul Bertone has joined the team as Studio Technical Design Director," Staten wrote in a Tweet. "Paul and I met in 1999, back in Bungie’s Chicago days, and then shipped Halo 1-3, ODST and Reach together. I’m thrilled to have Paul help lead the future of Halo Infinite."




Bertone worked at Bungie from 2000 until 2012, helping the developer launch all five of its Halo games. He then left the company ahead of its transition from Halo to the (then) new IP, Destiny. In the years since, he has worked with several game studios over the years — including State of Decay and State of Decay 2 developer Undead Labs — before returning to Halo in 2022.

It's exciting to see a longtime veteran developer for Halo return, especially since his expertise has the potential to help 343 Industries create content for Halo Infinite on a more frequent basis. One of the biggest criticisms fans have levied against the game since its launch in late 2021 is that it has a significant lack of gameplay variety for players to enjoy; hopefully, with the help of Bertone's technical design experience, its developers can create new game modes and matchmaking playlists more efficiently moving forward.

Source: Windows Central
 
peyton manning wtf GIF by Gatorade
 

Codes 208

Member
Because someone needs to save halo. Why not it be more of the people that originally made it

Like when dragon ball super first came out and everyone hated the cheapass art style so by the time we got to the latter goku black arc they hired back veterans from the dbz days and we got some of the best animation of the series by the ToP (and the broly movie)
 
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ZehDon

Member
I hope he held out for a fat bag of money - 343i isn't exactly the place talented developers want to work.

With that said, it's good to see Staten is bringing in people we know can deliver the goods. Will that come to fruition on Halo Infinite? Probably not; game's long dead, and any money spent on it is simply wasted. However, the next Halo project has at least a fighting chance with Staten leading creative and Bertone getting the Devs the tools they need.
 

kiphalfton

Member
Because someone needs to save halo. Why not it be more of the people that originally made it

Like when dragon ball super first came out and everyone hated the cheapass art style so by the time we got to the latter goku black arc they hired back veterans from the dbz days and we got some of the best animation of the series by the ToP

Awful analogy and I hope it doesn't turn out that way as DBS consisted of the same transformation animations and crap artstyle throughout the entire anime series.
 
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Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
What was that about? Plus, the TGA Player’s choice. And what has happened to the game since then?
I only played the campaign, parts of it, and it wasn’t even on my top 10.

Joke of the year he means....

If this game gets a re-review...it would never get the same 10's again. Most of those reviews looked all like paid reviews.

Never understand how this game ever got those high scores.
 
I decided to wait before jumping into Halo Infinite, considering its troubled development (despite being a fan of the franchise). Looking back now, I'm glad I did and nothing has convinced me to give it a try yet.

From what I've seen these last few months, this game will need a miracle in order to be revived. I thought this game was supposed to be the flagship title for this Xbox generation, lasting a decade, but the game died in mere weeks?
 

kyussman

Member
Now all they need is everyone else back from the original team that created Halo CE......and they might stand a chance,lol.
 

Fredrik

Member
Joke of the year he means....

If this game gets a re-review...it would never get the same 10's again. Most of those reviews looked all like paid reviews.

Never understand how this game ever got those high scores.
But that’s the mystery, it literally became GAF’s game of the year and TGA’s player choice. No paid voting, it’s regular gamers, it’s us. How?

I played the campaign for roughly 16 hours, then I stopped because I was bored. There was some indoor and outdoor variety but it was still incredibly samey. If things actually ramp up later then it’s simply too slow, there is no excuses, in 9 hours I had played through the whole Halo 5, which people hated on, and it gave me so much more entertainment and variety.

The grapple mechanic was awesome though, I’ll give them that. And some boss fights. And I enjoyed the openess that made it possible to go into enemy fights in different ways.

But still, I know it’s almost a meme but yes it should’ve had more biomes.
 
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Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
But that’s the mystery, it literally became GAF’s game of the year and TGA’s player choice. No paid voting, it’s regular gamers, it’s us. How?

I played the campaign for roughly 16 hours, then I stopped because I was bored. There was some indoor and outdoor variety but it was still incredibly samey. If things actually ramp up later then it’s simply too slow, there is no excuses, in 9 hours I had played through the whole Halo 5, which people hated on, and it gave me so much more entertainment and variety.

The grapple mechanic was awesome though, I’ll give them that. And some boss fights. And I enjoyed the openess that made it possible to go into enemy fights in different ways.

But still, I know it’s almost a meme but yes it should’ve had more biomes.

The world looked like a mod and the environments looked kinda bad. Trees were all the same and didn't had any physics. I was like they created HI inside a map editor from another game.
 

FUBARx89

Member
Pffffft. If bringing back Staten couldn't get Halo back on track, I doubt this will help.

Need to gut most of the top end leadership of 343i, as they've not really managed to do anything but waste money and make mediocre Halo games. If the games didn't have the Halo title MS would of most likely shit canned them ages ago, cause can't imagine them selling well without the name.

I have a special ire for Frank O'Connor, he's their Luke Smith, some community manager who somehow got well above his station.
 
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Belthazar

Member
Well... They will need all the help they can get to fix that dumpster fire, but I wonder if they'll have enough time and if the players will ever come back if they actually make something good out of that game.
 

Roberts

Member
I still play Halo Infinite. I totally agree that they are painfully slow on bringing new content to the game and should be criticised for it, but what we have at the moment is amazing. It is easy to see all the delays, memes, etc and shit on the game without ever playing it, but game's shooting mechanics are pretty much the best we have at the moment. Recently replayed the campaign and had just about as much fun as the first time and multiplayer never gets old.
 

BabyYoda

Banned
I finally made myself complete Halo Infinite a couple days ago. I'm still pissed at how bad it was.

Not even slightly interested in trying the mp.

The lackluster campaign ends with you having the ability to complete all if the side quests you might've missed (so almost all if them then), I've never deleted a game so fast in my life...

I've no idea why diversity hire Bonnie Ross still has a job! Oh wait I know, it's cos they don't want to lose woke points.

They need to close the studio right now and give Halo to a studio that knows what they're doing, or make a new studio with Bungie and other fps vets at the top, it's just too late for 343 I'm afraid.
 
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Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
If they hoping to fix the f2p mp then good luck, destiny PvP is hot trash 99% of the time. Work on some more pve content please.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
I feel embarrassed to be a neogaf member everytime I read that. What a stain on the history of this site.
I am not saying this is the worst game ever, butI do find it funny this was the GOTY of a forums a good number of Halo Infinite fans would have likely described as a Sony safe space where Xbox fans have to circle their wagons to protect themselves from the overwhelming oppression 🤷‍♂️.
 
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