343 Industries surprisingly announced last week that it would be delayingHalo Infinitefrom its planned Holiday 2020 window to an undoscial
In a new report from Brad Sams over atThurrott, the Microsoft insider laid out the reasons as to why he understands thatHalo Infiniteneeded to be delayed. The report acknowledges thatInfiniteon its own was already a very challenging product for 343.Halo Infiniteisn’t just any new entry in the series on its own – the development team crafted an entirely new engine for the project, was actively creating it for next-gen hardware, and as of this year, also needed to find a way to work on the game from home given the COVID-19 pandemic. This mix of challenges would have been difficult for nearly any developer as is.
That said, the report goes on to acknowledge thatHalo Infinite’sprimary reason for a troublesome development cycle seems to have come as a result of outsourced work. While common for AAA titles to outsource certain aspects of development to various companies,Infiniteseems to have struggled quite a bit when it comes to this due to the rate at which work was outsourced, which is said to be much higher than what is considered normal. As such, communication and collaboration between all of the involved parties working onHalo Infinitehas seemingly been complicated at times.
This information can seemingly be verified as well when looking at some workplace reviews for 343 Industries. Job boards such asGlassdoorcontain workplace reviews from some previous employees that worked at the studio. Of the cons that are mentioned, a handful cite communication issues to be a frequent problem at the company.
Sams goes on to mention in his report though that other issues at 343 have been constant over the years, too. The report points to Tim Longo, the formercreative director ofHalo Infinitewho left in 2019, as being an example of some clear disagreements that took place internally regarding the direction of the game as a whole.
And perhaps most interestingly of all, the story also points to the fact that 343’s attention has seemingly been split up amongst different projects. One of these is theHaloTV series,which is currently in production at Showtime and is set to air next year. The report doesn’t say that the TV show has been a major reason as to whyInfinitegot delayed, but it’s surely been a distraction in some ways.
Whatever the reason forHalo Infinite’sdelay though, it’s likely for the best that it was pushed back to begin with. Even though 343 won’t be able to launch the next-gen shooter in tandem with theXbox Series X in November, at least the team behind the game is prioritizing its quality over hitting a certain date. At the end of the day, if the game turns out to be great, likely no one will remember that it was even pushed back to begin with.
