Support NeoGAF

[SpartanN92]

Edit 10/28/2020: 1 down 3 to go.
I think it is time for Phil Spencer to take a very hard look at 343's leadership team and consider replacing them. 343i was founded in 2007 shortly after the Bungie separation. Since then they have made the following games:
*Halo Combat Evolved: Anniversary 2011: Outsource project by Saber Interactive, it was fine except for questionable artistic style choices. Turning Reach's multiplayer into the CE:A multiplayer was lazy.
*Halo 4 2012: In house game. Wide negative reception of Multiplayer, Universe Building, and Art Style but it holds a special place in my heart. Solid first attempt in my opinion. Spartan Ops was stupid and very poorly thought out. No campaign theater. The Multiplayer was greatly fixed via a title update about 6 months after launch but by then it was too little too late. The player base had left.
*Halo Master Chief Collection 2014: Outsource project by Saber Interactive/Certain Affinity and numerous other studios, widely regarded as the biggest technical disaster in gaming history, took 4+ years to fix, is pretty amazing now. They are still adding titles to MCC on PC and doing lots of quality of life updates along the way. It's just a shame it took them so many years to get to this point.
*Halo 5 2015: In house game. God awful horrendous single player campaign with maybe the most misleading marketing campaign I have ever seen for a video game. Split opinions on multiplayer. Shipped missing LOTS of features that were eventually added over a few years. Forge and Firefight were missing at launch. No true 8v8 Big Team Battle Maps were ever made. Awful art style and map design. Almost killed the franchise for me.
*Halo Wars 2 2017: Outsource project by Creative Assembly. Ok game. Best art style choices in Halo since 343 took over. Dreadful character recasts (Anders and Cutter)
*A few mobile games but I'm not gonna bother with those.
*Halo Infinite which had its divisive game play reveal last month. I'd call it under cooked and as a result of fan feedback the game has been pushed back until sometime in 2021. This is a colossal failure given the amount of time they had to develop this game and just how important this project was to the success of the Series X launch and of the Halo Franchise itself. This was supposed to be their soft reboot, and their time to make things right. The game play seems good and looks reminiscent of Halo 3. The art style is hit/miss, it probably has the most beautiful Master Chief suit design ever. I agree with the decision to delay but I won't praise them for it. This shouldn't have been necessary in the first place.

They have also made countless Books, Comics, and a couple of episodic movies/radio plays. These range from Amazing (Hunt the Truth) to atrocious (Halo: Nightfall). Each one of these also contributes to Halo's current standing in their own way.

Keep in mind that the last Halo FPS was in 2015. It will be over a 5 year gap in Halo mainline entries. Has anyone of these games been considered a success? Has anyone of these games matched Halo's incredible legacy? COVID aside, 343 is not renown as a developer that is successful in delivering complete/ready products at a predetermined deadline. If this was their first major mess up I'd be more inclined to give them a break because of COVID but Halo Infinite is just another in a long list of managerial failures from 343.
If I was Phil Spencer I'd be looking at least the first 3 people on this list and maybe number 4 and reconsidering their positions in the company.
Simply put; 343 has displayed nothing but incompetence and frankly a complete and fundamental misunderstanding of what Halo is since the near beginning of their stewardship of the series. It has been set back after setback with them, every game they have launched has had some sort of problem or a "We will fix it after launch" approach. Each one of those games was shy of key features at launch or just simply not up to the quality expected of Halo and at the end of the day, Halo's reputation has suffered greatly underneath their leadership and I think it is time for accountability.


Bonnie Ross: Founder and Head of 343 Industries (Head Feminazi)

Frank O'Connor: Franchise Development Director/Part time Janitor (If he'd spent more time grooming the franchise and less time shitposting on REEEE then we might not be here.)

Kiki WolfKill: Head of TransMedia (Badass name, currently responsible for making a surely awful Halo SJW TV Show)

Chris Lee: Studio Head of FPS Development (Assumed role after Josh Holmes famously departed. Seems like a good guy in over his head. I can't imagine what his support structure is like so I'd probably give him the benefit of the doubt)


Edit:

I have zero confidence in the leadership at 343. I am so sick and tired of thinking "Oh my god, maybe they have learned from their previous mistakes and THIS time they will get it right!" I am sure that the majority of the regular employees at 343 are competent and hard workers that love the franchise but the people who are calling the shots are not. It has been a decade of Bonnie Ross and co. ruining Halo. Enough is enough.

 

[hyperbertha]

Securing a line with Agent 47 as we speak.

 

[FunkMiller]

Is Bonnie Ross the Kathleen Kennedy of the games world?

 

[VAVA Mk2]

Is Bonnie Ross the Kathleen Kennedy of the games world?

Yup

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Bonnie's kinda hot but, yeah, they clearly aren't managing 343i properly. Neither are the others you mention, though Lee seems like they're doing what they can with restrictions in place as you say.

You shouldn't need multiple other 1st-party studios to take away time from their new projects to help assist in your current one when you're working with a $500 million budget (surely some of that is for marketing and licensing deals) and 1000+ employees!!!!

 

[01011001]

I agree with you but I would remove the "The executive leadership at" part of the conversation.

and shrink that down to just:
>>343 Needs to go<<

 

[DaleinCalgary]

343 failures go beyond themselves. Those in charge at corporate failed to monitor them properly and just kept throwing money at it and hoped for the best.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

I struggle to say anything positive about 343 honestly. I can say positive things about even EA. It is what it is.

 

[vpance]

The prioritization on diversity hiring was the final nail.

""By prioritising the fostering of unique perspective and voices, we can greatly impact the future of our industry. This is true in both education and representation -- we have to talk the talk and walk the walk." - Ross

 

[Insane Metal]

Yup along with Phil Spencer and others at the top of the XBox business.

 

[-Arcadia-]

I tend to think that 'Five strikes and you're out', is more than fair. It really has been a decade of 343 not just failing to live up to, but egregiously ruining the franchise.

How many more chances are we going to give them?

The only thing I'm hesitant on, is Infinite looking like the best Halo in forever, in terms of gameplay. It actually looked fun, engaging to explore, and really well done. It's just that they had to completely screw up (possibly affecting an entire platform this time, not just Halo) once again on the visuals.

 

[JTCx]

Theyre fine. The meltdowns they produce are great.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

The prioritization on diversity hiring was the final nail.

""By prioritising the fostering of unique perspective and voices, we can greatly impact the future of our industry. This is true in both education and representation -- we have to talk the talk and walk the walk." - Ross

Diversity of thought is what we should all strive for.

Diversity in appearance.....no.

 

[Eliciel]

Judgement Day!

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The prioritization on diversity hiring was the final nail.

""By prioritising the fostering of unique perspective and voices, we can greatly impact the future of our industry. This is true in both education and representation -- we have to talk the talk and walk the walk." - Ross

Actually, if you read those words it's a pretty vague statement that would be used to get SJWs off their back. You can easily hire the best person for the job and say that immediately after because it's such meaningless fluff.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

Theyre fine. The meltdowns they produce are great.

But that's absolutely unfair to fans of Halo.

 

[Bodomism]

Should've hired this guy

 

[Cert.in.Death]

I am not onboard for demanding people get fired. Healthy criticism and acknowledging failings/shortcomings is fair game, but when you stray into requesting they lose their job, that's a line crossed IMO.

 

[Kuranghi]

Yeah, take 'em out if it helps the franchise.

 

[Vawn]

Seems like they just need to disband 343 altogether. They never should have been given to the keys to the flagship series.

It seems wrong that Halo games should even continue when their creators are not involved, but i understand why Xbox feels they have to use the ip.

 

[Goro Majima]

Actually, if you read those words it's a pretty vague statement that would be used to get SJWs off their back. You can easily hire the best person for the job and say that immediately after because it's such meaningless fluff.

Yeah the statement reads like standard Fortune 500 HR speak.

I've said it before but I really don't care if 343 is pushing for diversity because I don't think Halo is this horribly complex thing that somehow only white men get.

But at the end of the day it should be gamers of whatever race, creed, sexual orientation, etc. designing these things and the final product has to be made well.

The other real problem is when you tout your diversity and your diversity fucks up and now you have to fire someone? Like how do you avoid the backlash in that scenario? Unfortunately there are a lot of screechers who have to realize that equality and diversity still means being held to the same standards with the same consequences.

 

[Warnen]

Yes more salt for my pretzel

 

[vpance]

Actually, if you read those words it's a pretty vague statement that would be used to get SJWs off their back. You can easily hire the best person for the job and say that immediately after because it's such meaningless fluff.

I think she is serious about that.

Diversity of thought is what we should all strive for.

Diversity in appearance.....no.

She mentions diversity of thought in the interview, but we all know what that means in the tech-left these days.

 

[01011001]

I am not onboard for demanding people get fired. Healthy criticism and acknowledging failings/shortcomings is fair game, but when you stray into requesting they lose their job, that's a line crossed IMO.

after running a whole franchise into the ground, that's absolutely a valid request.

imagine a UPS driver that manages to somehow break the insides of most of the packages he delivers. and continues to do so even tho he had years of customer feedback to be more fucking careful.
how could you argue against people that want to see that guy fired after breaking all the shit they ordered?

 

[VAVA Mk2]

I bet the MS Board of Directors and Shareholders at least support the idea of removing Ross, O'Connor, and Wolfkill. They should have Staten shifted over to be Franchise Development Director. He was part of Halo before Frankie came to Bungie and was central in creation and management of lore and the Halo Bible. Hell GrrimBrotherOne who used to be a major poster on HBO could take over for Frankie and likely do better.

 

[JTCx]

But that's absolutely unfair to fans of Halo.

Not sure about that. There were plenty of fans around ready to eat that up. They were salivating over a new halo regardless of quality. Thankfully the rest of the internet were relentless.

 

[Jadsey]

I think Phil’s on very shaky ground if he start’s firing people for gross incompetence...

Pot...kettle...

 

[Golgo 13]

Diversity of thought is what we should all strive for.

Diversity in appearance.....no.

The entire “Diversity” push is an idealogical hellhole that falls apart upon inspection. Since when are ideas distributed differently based on skin color/gender/ethnicity? That in itself is so unbelievably stupid (and has no basis in neuroscience, by the way) and actually, prejudiced. The very notion is saying “Black people have different ideas because they have black skin and that means their brains are different than other people”. Uh. What?

343i is a beautiful example of how a “diversity” priority in hiring ruins your company by removing the focus on hiring the very most talented people, regardless of skin color/gender identity/religion, and instead filling a blanket, predetermined quota of physical appearances/sexes.

 

[SimpleKindofMan]

The 343 leadership team of Ross, O’Connor, and Wolfkill has been in place for over a decade. When 343 was formed, their qualifications to run a AAA franchise were...next to nothing.

Since 2007, they have burnished their resumes with failure after failure, all while having some of the most prestigious positions in gaming. It’s a competitive business. Highly lucrative. Success should be rewarded generously. And failure penalized accordingly. How many people at 343 are skilled and productive, yet are tarnished by management failure?

They have become adept at excuses. One would think 343 is a brand new studio the way they talk about all of the challenges they face. They were more than happy to take credit for the Master Chief Collection...until it blew up. Then they were very loud about how they outsourced it. With their budget and THIRTEEN years they should have the best tools and processes imaginable. Yet here we are. As a comparison, The Coalition is a far newer Microsoft studio and doesn’t seem to have the same problems.

At what point does a failed experiment end?

 

[Chakan]

343 Industries is pretty much dead. Don't get your hopes high with Halo Infinite while the current people are in charge.

 

[Aion002]

Eh... I think that some Xbox execs are real problems.... They could have ND and CD Projekt at their hands and they would still fuck things up.


I hope that Playground is able to make a good Fable, because Xbox environment looks terrible for the studios.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Something needs to change because it's just feeling like 343 doesn't have whatever the Halo series needs to thrive. When it was in Bungie's hands it was doing really well. As soon as it went into 343's it all changed. Sure, MCC has definitely come around and is looking great, but that's not content they created from scratch. It appears any Halo they've worked on from the ground up is average, or mediocre at best. Maybe slightly below or above for some.

 

[Enjay]

Frank O'Connor sexually assaulted a mentally challenged woman and nothing happened. This studio isn't going anywhere.

 

[Jack Peterson]

Bonnie Ross probably doesn't even play video games.

 

[NullZ3r0]

Much of the hate around this studio here has to be political. My politics don't align with the studio but I can separate politics from entertainment. Who would you replace them with? That woke shit is baked into MS.

I had to mute some MS people I was following after the George Floyd fiasco. If they had any color in their skin, they were insufferable to listen to. Anyone fired by MS would be replaced by another woke Seattle drone.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

 

[tillbot8]

Yeah probably, most annoying thing is that they all get big fat severance packages and golden parachutes to other companies. If any of us are incompetent in end product in our jobs we are shit-canned with zero anything!

I worked for a huge forbes500 company and the CEO was let go due to poor performance and the rumour internally was he got 3 years salary (which was over 50 million dollars) for stepping down!

Where is the risk for them to do the best they can when the safety net will catch them and a big bag of money will break their fall!

 

[UncleMeat]

Frank O'Connor: Franchise Development Director/Part time Janitor (If he'd spent more time grooming the franchise and less time shitposting on REEEE then we might not be here.)

I've often had the same thought. Every time I would see one of his long insane rants, usually during regular business hours, I'd think "don't you have a job to do?" I don't really go there often anymore but I doubt much has changed. And if I'm an employee and see my boss spending so much time not working why should I care if he doesn't?

 

[Michael Hawk]

343 being allowed to repeatedly fail isn't the main issue. Yes, Halo being a former shell of itself is sad, but the truth is the management at Xbox knew that the guys who made and worked on Halo were not going to keep making and working on Halo games. It was Xbox managment's job to ensure that whatever happened with Halo would not impact the overall Xbox brand.

So as weird as it sounds, you can get away with fucking up Halo if there's backup in the form of other big games that will pick up the slack. The problem is there's no such backup at Xbox. They literally don't have any other Halo-level games at Xbox. If Minecraft was an Xbox exclusive then this wouldn't even be a discussion, but that property is available on every platform. To put that into perspective, if Nintendo fucks up Mario (which they've done in the past), they have Zelda, Smash, Animal Crossing, and Mario Kart to pick up the slack. If Sony fucks up Gran Turismo (which they've done in the past), they have Uncharted, God of War, Spider-Man, and The Last of Us to pick up the slack. Games like Splatoon, Horizon Zero Dawn, Mario Maker, Ratchet & Clank etc. are also big, but they're nowhere near as big as a brand new Zelda or a brand new God of War.

So Xbox's problem isn't that 343 has, yet again, fucked up Halo. Their track record with Halo has so far been a mixture of B's and F's. The real issue is Xbox has, yet again, nothing else of equal significance to offer. So ultimately, the person that has allowed both 343 to fail again and other Xbox studios to have nothing to help Halo again -- Philip Spencer -- is the one that needs to go.

You can't have leaders that, well, can't lead. His fear of holding 343 accountable for Halo is greatly overshadowed by his fear of taking risks in creating new IP. So with that in mind, a demotion or removal from Xbox operations should be the next step in getting the Xbox games library back on track. It's neat that some people like Philip Spencer, but if his job performance has so far been a huge disappointment, then someone else needs to have that job.

 

[MasterCornholio]

I think the really big issue is that 343 are capable of destroying the franchise. With how little that's associated with Xbox they can't allow that to happen.

 

[diffusionx]

343's many screwups with this franchise are well-documented, but they had a chance to put all that behind them. All they had to do was deliver an awesome Halo Infinite for the XSX's launch. Now, that is not an easy job, but as they say, that is what the money is for. And they couldn't even do that. Not even close. In less than a decade Halo went from being one of, if not the top franchises, to a Wojak-tier meme. This is after 5 years of 343, Ross, whoever else, swearing up and down that they learned all their lessons and Infinite was the culmination of that. They just don't know what they are doing and have no business being in charge of this or any other franchise. Well, that's not true, give them Blood Wake 2 and let them work their way up from that.

Is Bonnie Ross the Kathleen Kennedy of the games world?

Yes, this isn't even up for debate.

 

[CrysisFreak]

I don't know these people but from the pictures they don't exactly look like geniuses.
Yeah yeah I know don't judge a book by its cover but look at them.
And if they really are SJWs as OP's implying then that explains a lot.

 

[llien]

Franchise Development Director/Part time Janitor

What???

343i is a beautiful example of how a “diversity” priority in hiring

Do we know for a fact that they did d hiring?
I mean, if B. Ross is the founder of the company...

from the pictures they don't exactly look like geniuses.

Dude...

 

[diffusionx]

Do we know for a fact that they did d hiring?
I mean, if B. Ross is the founder of the company...

I don't know what 343's internal initiatives and policies are, but I do know Ross has spent a lot of time in the past year or two on the diversity circuit talking up her grrrl power.

 

[SpartanN92]

What???

He played the Janitor in Halo: Forward Unto Dawn. It was a joke.

 

[Reallink]

Not just a handful of executives, the studio needs to be gutted. Producers, hiring directors, all department leads, etc... They've wasted over half a decade and hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars. It needs to be razed to the ground at this point.

 

[Camreezie]

343 being allowed to repeatedly fail isn't the main issue. Yes, Halo being a former shell of itself is sad, but the truth is the management at Xbox knew that the guys who made and worked on Halo were not going to keep making and working on Halo games. It was Xbox managment's job to ensure that whatever happened with Halo would not impact the overall Xbox brand.

So as weird as it sounds, you can get away with fucking up Halo if there's backup in the form of other big games that will pick up the slack. The problem is there's no such backup at Xbox. They literally don't have any other Halo-level games at Xbox. If Minecraft was an Xbox exclusive then this wouldn't even be a discussion, but that property is available on every platform. To put that into perspective, if Nintendo fucks up Mario (which they've done in the past), they have Zelda, Smash, Animal Crossing, and Mario Kart to pick up the slack. If Sony fucks up Gran Turismo (which they've done in the past), they have Uncharted, God of War, Spider-Man, and The Last of Us to pick up the slack. Games like Splatoon, Horizon Zero Dawn, Mario Maker, Ratchet & Clank etc. are also big, but they're nowhere near as big as a brand new Zelda or a brand new God of War.

So Xbox's problem isn't that 343 has, yet again, fucked up Halo. Their track record with Halo has so far been a mixture of B's and F's. The real issue is Xbox has, yet again, nothing else of equal significance to offer. So ultimately, the person that has allowed both 343 to fail again and other Xbox studios to have nothing to help Halo again -- Philip Spencer -- is the one that needs to go.

You can't have leaders that, well, can't lead. His fear of holding 343 accountable for Halo is greatly overshadowed by his fear of taking risks in creating new IP. So with that in mind, a demotion or removal from Xbox operations should be the next step in getting the Xbox games library back on track. It's neat that some people like Philip Spencer, but if his job performance has so far been a huge disappointment, then someone else needs to have that job.

Very good points, my question is : Halo Infinite was going to be the showpiece for the new console. Surely Microsoft should be able to be to have some other series up their sleeve to alternate with Halo/Gears/Forza. Having that short a bench in terms of legacy IP comes back around in these situations. I guess they're trying with Fable but that's so far off they should've started earlier

 

[JoduanER2]

Creativity and SJW dont mix, thats the problem.

 

[zcaa0g]

343 needs to not exist at all. It's the only way to be sure.

 

[Chairman]

There needs to be a restructure, however, sometimes the higher ups make decisions that are questionable. For example 4K/60 is probably not what the studio was aiming for but who knows.