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Halo Infinite director Chris Lee has left the project

Phase

Member
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Flintty

Member
I feel bad for the guy, it must be a shit feeling. I think the reaction to Infinite was grossly over-reacted based on a few cherry picked screen shots and I still think Chief has never looked as good as he did in that video.

That said, I do hope they use the extra time to polish the game, but I don’t think a change in personnel at that level is going to affect any meaningful changes to the game at this stage, unless they delay it further. And if that’s what it takes then so be it.
 

VertigoOA

Banned
I wouldn’t be surprised if the campaign got indefinitely delayed or axed.

I think we will see Halo pvp launch way, way before any campaign ...
 

Evangelion Unit-01

Master Chief
Let’s not turn this into a Phil thread.


Jim Ryan doesn’t micromanage Naught Dog or Santa Monica. He trusts them to deliver great games. Phil does the same. Playground, Mojang, Turn 10, Rare all seem to be able to do that without Phil holding their hands. 343 is seemingly the outlier. When a studio fails to deliver then Phil and Jim need to make hard decisions. Let’s hope that is what is happening now.
 
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MrS

Banned
I see a lot of hot takes on the subject and there is nothing wrong with speculation, but isn't it possible that his job is basically finished and he decided to move on to a new opportunity while the rest of the team adds some coats of paint?
If he was the narrative lead, I'd say yeah. But he was the project lead/game director and the game is far, far from finished with no release date in sight. There's a lot of blame to go around. It's not right that it should all fall on the shoulders of one person. Halo is the jewel in Xbox's crown and somebody in senior Xbox leadership should have intervened or been more involved.
 
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MarkMe2525

Gold Member
If he was the narrative lead, I'd say yeah. But he's the project lead/game director and the game is far, far from finished with no release date in sight.
This is 100% a guess. It wouldn't be wise to come to conclusions based on an assumption. We have no evidence whatsoever on what they are working on or how far they are from completion.
 
How the hell this game was meant to release in 2 weeks is above me. Did 343 really expect to put of what seems like a stitched together mess of a game and expect people to like it?

Thats whats so baffling. Everything was fine, they demo it in july. No news of any delays. One month later, the house is burning down and they need another year...

Like.....what...
 
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ZehDon

Member
I remember when Halo consistently delivered amazing games - literally some of the best of all time. It can't be easy being an executive at a company that has turned one of the most beloved series in all of gaming into a dumpster fire. I hope Chris Lee is off to better things; walking away while the building is burning can't be easy, even if its the right call for yourself.

Looking ahead, there's no way Halo Infinite delivers anything resembling a coherent experience. Staten helped Bungie turn around Halo 2 in less than a year, enduring horrible crunch to see the impossible done. 343i have had over five years at this point, and they can't even keep the director around. After Infinite fails, and Microsoft are left with a series no one wants to engage with anymore, I really do hope 343i are shuttered. Their company brand is worthless, its executives names are poison, and they've destroyed Microsoft's icon. Burn the fucking house down, I say.
 
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Oppoi

Member
Thats whats so baffling. Everything was fine, they demo it in july. No news of any delays. One month later, the house is burning down and they need another year...

Like.....what...

I have absolutely no expertize or any experience but to me it seems like 343i has found themselves with some serious conflict in the creative process of making a Halo game.
 
I have absolutely no expertize or any experience but to me it seems like 343i has found themselves with some serious conflict in the creative process of making a Halo game.

That still doesn't make any sense 3 months before launch and MS literally pushing the game like they knew nothing.

I think the Demo feedback scared 343 and MS and they decided to back to the drawing board especially now that Lee is leaving. Only explanation that make sense. It was his vision, and now hes gone.
 

Oppoi

Member
That still doesn't make any sense 3 months before launch and MS literally pushing the game like they knew nothing.

I think the Demo feedback scared 343 and MS and they decided to back to the drawing board especially now that Lee is leaving. Only explanation that make sense. It was his vision, and now hes gone.

No doubt. Honestly their demo displayed a lack of vision. Halo deserves to be treated like Half Life.
 

Rockman33

Member
Youre aware that warzone also makes a ton of money selling you tracers and colored gun blueprints for guns you already unlocked? And they go from 15 to 30$.

Let not be hypocrites here mmkay?
You do realize this post is about halo infinite and not halo 5 right?

mmmkay
 

Wimbledon

Member
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Phil must be blind or something why is the corporate feminist not fired yet.

I don't understand the leadership here, how does she still have a job. Kiki wolfkill and Frankie i don't understand what Phil sees in them.

They've had the reigns of halo for so god damn long and what have they done to show for it!

Bruh Bonnie is the Kathleen Kennedy of Halo SHE NEEDS TO GO WTF MAN!
 

Oppoi

Member
P1000463.jpg


Phil must be blind or something why is the corporate feminist not fired yet.

I don't understand the leadership here, how does she still have a job. Kiki wolfkill and Frankie i don't understand what Phil sees in them.

They've had the reigns of halo for so god damn long and what have they done to show for it!

Bruh Bonnie is the Kathleen Kennedy of Halo SHE NEEDS TO GO WTF MAN!

Just another feather in the hat of whoever hired her. No fucks given.
 
Let’s no turn this into a Phil thread.


Jim Ryan doesn’t micromanage Naught Dog or Santa Monica. He trusts them to deliver great games. Phil does the same. Playground, Mojang, Turn 10, Rare all seem to be able to do that without Phil holding their hands. 343 is seemingly the outlier. When a studio fails to deliver then Phil and Jim need to make hard decisions. Let’s hope that is what is happening now.

What does Matt Booty do as head of first party? Will he have been involved in the games development ?
 

Flintty

Member
I have absolutely no expertize or any experience but to me it seems like 343i has found themselves with some serious conflict in the creative process of making a Halo game.

I don’t think that’s true. I think they had a creative vision they believed in, showed footage and the reaction from 30% real fans and 70% trolls made them question that vision. Numbers from my arse but you get the gist of it.
 
this game is going to suck regardless
I wish they would scrap it all, dismantle 343i, get competant dev in there and rework the game for next gen only, that's what we deserve and that's what should have happened, that's what Halo is, a new system seller. Now it's a Craig meme. If Bonnie/Kiki/Frankie don't get fired I will be speechless
funny stuff, I was a MASSIVE Halo fan, as were many of my friends, I think of all my hardcore halo friends i'm the only one that even played Halo 5 as a "last chance for 343i game", and it was the worst one yet. On this current trajectory we KNOW that Halo Infinite will be even worse than Halo 5. It's insanity that we've seen nothing about this game yet. I remember the masterpiece Halo CE had tech demo's years out of release, and hell even Halo 5 had a beta 1 year out of release. Halo Infinite - we have ZERO info, because there is nothing worthy to show. The E3 demo was literally the best they could come up with and we all roasted it, rightfully so

just kill the studio and scrap the game, it's a sunk cost at this ponit
 

Oppoi

Member
I don’t think that’s true. I think they had a creative vision they believed in, showed footage and the reaction from 30% real fans and 70% trolls made them question that vision. Numbers from my arse but you get the gist of it.

It was 100% their fault this time. Had they shown something great you could blame 30% on the trolls but in this case that 70% hated it as well.
 
Welcome to 343 Industries, where we are known for being incompetent. I can't imagine what this game would have been like if it released with Series X
 

Tschumi

Member
One look at how people are bending this post about a dude to be about diversity and bonnie ross etc and I'm like lol@those crocodile tear GAFers who said "you stupid dudu, we only ever care about talent here, stop judging us".. you guys just can't resist playing the outrage card - either outrage at a woman in a position of authority or Outrage at someone calling you on it
 
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lock2k

Banned
One look at how people are bending this post about a free to be about diversity and bonnie ross etc and I'm like lol@those crocodile tear GAFers who said "you stupid dudu, we only ever care about talent here, stop judging is".. you guys just can't resist playing the outrage card - either outrage at a woman in a position of authority or Outrage at someone calling you on it
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Bonnie Ross being a woman doesn't have anything to do with it, but my god is she (and MS partly) incompetent. Based on reviews of their own employees we can surmise:

They have terrible internal communication.
Most staff are contract workers for a year or two just to get it on their resume.
Management plays office politics and hides the problems to their bosses.
They purposefully hired people who don't get the franchise.
Their tech is/was outdated (before slipspace)
People don't trust the management.

Genuinely sorry to you fans, but you have been blind to the writing on the wall. This studio have had deep-rooted problems for many years that have been known to the public. Major shake-ups are needed.
To me Halo was somewhat on life support since Halo 4, so I don't really care about it anymore, but still sad to see a franchise mismanaged out of relevance. 343 is a relic from the dark Xbox days, and the Piper is coming.
 

Compsiox

Banned
Guy is leaving after completion of the game (remaining are essentially technical adjustments, and post launch content), how can we turn this into a concern news ?
Yeah I was gonna say. A lot of people here like to jump to the worst conclusions. Oh well.
 

Compsiox

Banned
If he was the narrative lead, I'd say yeah. But he was the project lead/game director and the game is far, far from finished with no release date in sight. There's a lot of blame to go around. It's not right that it should all fall on the shoulders of one person. Halo is the jewel in Xbox's crown and somebody in senior Xbox leadership should have intervened or been more involved.
Nice job pulling shit from your ass. The game was going to launch next month. It can't be that far from completion at all. They're likely just fixing the things people complained about in the demo.
 

Bragr

Banned
The problem with Halo and Gears of War in this generation is that they didn't have the balls to change them up and gave them to studios too afraid to do anything new with them.

I remember Miyamoto talking about how it was harder to get the new people at Nintendo to change franchises and be bold than the old guard, because the new guys had too much respect and reverence for the franchises.

They need to do what God of War and Zelda did, change the ballgame. We already played Halo and Gears to death and back again, you are not gonna blow people away with small additions like a fucking grappling hook or a new granade.
 
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