In 2001, Bungie Studios released one of the most influential games of the industry at the time. That game was Halo: Combat Evolved. With its release, the console FPS was revolutionized and changed forevermore. The studio would then go on to develop and release two sequels, a spin-off, and a prequel before leaving Microsoft entirely in 2010 after fulfilling a contractual obligation for their last two Halo titles. In 2007, this separation started as the end of their partnership with Microsoft. As such, the latter would go on to form their own first-party studio to continue the franchise without their original studio. That studio would go on to be known as 343 Industries.
It seemed like an exciting time. Despite Bungie leaving their IP behind in Microsoft's hands, most fans expected the series to continue going strong for years to come. 343 started with some small projects while Bungie was still developing the likes of Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. These projects included Halo Waypoint, a podcast, and more. However, their first game release would go on to shape fans' first impressions of their track record. That game just so happens to be a remaster of the very title that started the whole thing. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was a divisive one at that. While it was a technical marvel seeing a remaster that effectively grafted a whole new graphics engine on top of Bungie's proprietary engine for the game to keep the gameplay 100% faithful, it utterly failed to pay respect to the game's original artistic vision. Thus, it's frowned upon by a sizable chunk of the community to this day, myself included. But things only got worse over time. Halo 4 was a huge departure from many elements of Bungie's original games that people loved so much, including a multiplayer mode that unapologetically copied many aspects from another popular FPS series at the time, Call of Duty.
Moving forward to the Xbox One, Halo: The Master Chief Collection would go down as one of the most disatrous launches in gaming history at the time. There were numerous issues not only with the individual games in the collection, but with the new universal UI that 343 implemented to connect all the games together. Online matchmaking was excruciatingly slow, despite the sizable playerbase, and a whole lot more. Their next project, Halo 5: Guardians, proved to be yet another controversial entry with fans. It ditched the split-screen co-op and multiplayer that was once a huge staple of the series, introduced advanced movement options that alienated old fans and attempted to simply fit in with other FPS games at the time, and featured grossly priced microtransactions. Not to mention, the marketing wasn't even indicative of the game's actual narrative. It also launched in a barebones state, missing a lot of the game modes that were seen in previous titles, and it took them about 6-8 months just to bring most of that stuff back.
The final nail in the coffin was the failure that was Halo Infinite. Not only did this game also launch with barely any modes like Halo 5, there were networking issues, an egregious F2P model with disgustingly overpriced player cosmetics in the game's store, but split-screen co-op once again didn't make the cut. What really makes this one sting is that the former studio head, Bonnie Ross, promised five years prior Infinite's release that all Halo games will have split screen going forward. Granted, the campaign mode was only affected by this. However, it still angered a lot of fans in the community, and for good reason. They made a promise that they couldn't keep, and after a 5 year wait nonetheless. After all the mistakes and tone-deaf decisions made over the years, the general gaming community lost their trust with the studio. It was abundantly clear that, above all the talented and passionate devs working in the trenches to try and make a game worthy of the Halo brand, the head and all the top management at 343 Industries were incompetent at running the studio. At this point, it seemed like the Halo franchise was in a state of limbo...
However, hope may not be lost for Halo as of yet. Over the past couple years, it seems as though the studio has undergone some potentially radical changes behind the scenes. Bonnie Ross stepped down as studio head, and much of the old management followed suit. With a new studio head, Pierre Hintze, things could always take a turn for the better. Recently, the studio has completely rebranded itself with a new name: Halo Studios. On top of this, a huge decision has been made at the studio that could either make or break the very future of the franchise: Future Halo games will now be developed in the industry-standard Unreal Engine (Specifically UE5 as of now), and it's been said that multiple projects are in development. After all the mistakes that 343i have made, what are my thoughts on all of this recent news? Well, talk is cheap, and so are the tech showcases they've done with their so-called "Project Foundry." I remain neutral toward the studio, and they'll only gain my respect if they can actually release a satisfactory Halo title. And whether the culture at the studio has actually changed or not is something we have yet to see...
In the end, I still exhibit a lot of passion for Halo as a game franchise. I just want to see it stand amongst the current heavy hitters of the industry again, whilst also doing its own thing instead of attempting to homogenize itself in a fruitless attempt to attract a "wider audience". If you made it to the end of this rant, congrats! Here's stylized version of a comedic screenshot that someone took in Halo 3's theater mode ages ago. Hopefully, this gets at least a decent chuckle out of you. :)
