Opinion: Xbox Needs to Let Halo Infinite Go

Yesterday, there was a report that took the internet by storm. That was the massive layoff round at Microsoft that cost ten-thousand employees their jobs. This layoff round spread across multiple divisions within Microsoft. Including Bethesda Game Studios and 343 Industries. How severely this hit Bethesda Game Studios has yet to be confirmed. But there is cause for alarm with how hard it hit 343 industries, creators of Halo Infinite.

As not only did 343 industries lose sixty members of their campaign team. But Joseph Staten, the Creative Lead for Halo Infinite had departed the studio as well. He was not laid off but returned to Xbox Game Studios Publishing. This was a major blow to the studio and started a renewed conversation on the game and where it is heading. That is if it is heading anywhere.

Trouble In Paradise

Ever since the launch of the game, it had an uphill battle despite its explosive multiplayer launch. Back in July of 2021, they announced that two core staple features of the franchise: Co-op Campaign and Forge would be delayed by up to six months, initially. These features were pushed back even further until they launched just a few months ago. While these features have breathed new life into the game. It feels hollow as they were originally intended to launch with Halo Infinite. 

Delaying features to ensure they are up to snuff is definitely important. But the current roadmap for Halo Infinite detailed quality-of-life improvements for Forge, ahead of the launch of the feature. Meaning that despite the feature launching it is still incomplete. This comes off the back of nearly a year of anemic content updates that already plummeted the game’s player base. This was a game already in trouble, with a brief reprieve of delayed features, one of which is still not entirely finished and is facing problems yet again.

Losing a major pivotal leader in the studio ensured Halo Infinite came out to critical acclaim. As well as the invaluable developers that were let go during the layoffs can break the flow of any campaign content coming in the future. This is a shame for a game series that rose to its legendary status from its campaigns.

Working with Sluggish Tools

If losing pivotal leadership and a good chunk of developers who worked primarily on the campaign was not bad enough. The rest of the studio is stuck working with the Slipspace engine which has been heavily rumored to be the cause of many issues with the game. Mainly the frequency at which content updates can be created and delivered to the player base. This was a discussion that started during the time the first content update launched six months after the multiplayer launch in November of 2021.

This update would have to carry the game as the next multiplayer season and the associated content update would not launch until November. Two regular content updates over the course of a full year, with the second one highlighted additions being delayed features, are already troubling. But after a full year. 343 Industries has not given players any update on when new content would be added to the campaign.

While this problem could be attributed to the development team still figuring out how to work within a live service game. Back during Halo 5: Guardians, the content roadmap even a year out was more impressive.

As well as how much more free customization players got. The content delivery within each game’s time span is a night and day difference.

Move on From Halo Infinite

Halo Infinite aimed to be a ten-year live service game. Similar to what Bungie promised with the original Destiny. But a year and some change later, the game barely holds a candle in terms of content delivery to Halo 5: Guardians. As well as Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The Slipspace engine could be the culprit behind the slow delivery of content. But if this is the case, did 343 Industries know this was going to happen when using this engine? As opposed to industry standard engines, such as Unreal, what was the goal of using Slipspace?

That being the case, should Halo Infinite continue its great journey, or activate the terminal and start from scratch? In my opinion, they should start from scratch. Start a new Halo game that picks up where Infinite left off in terms of the story using Unreal Engine 5 and ensure that both fanbases flock to Halo. So both campaign and multiplayer fans get the best experiences possible. While live service games can make a comeback, such as Rare’s Sea of Thieves. That ship has already sailed. That was the exception, not the rule.

Halo is iconic in the gaming space, especially for the Xbox platform. Do the right thing, 343 Industries, start again and take your time. Getting it right is more important than broken promises.