Leadership swaps continue at 343 Industries as the director of Halo Infinite has been replaced for the second time in as many years.
It always bodes poorly when projects suffers a leadership swap. It suggests that something major has gone awry – often that the creative head’s vision didn’t sit well with the higher-ups and that a shakeup was demanded.
Which was why fans of the Halo series were troubled back in August last year when creative director Tim Longo left the Halo Infinite project and 343 Industries. And now it’s happened a second time.
In a statement to Bloomberg, partner studio head Chris Lee said “I have stepped back from Infinite and I am looking at future opportunities. I believe in the team and am confident they will deliver a great game and now is a good time for me to step away.”
It seems Lee’s role was side-lined in the wake of negative reactions to the gameplay reveal of Halo Infinite that was released earlier in July this year. It was around this time that the game’s release was pushed back to 2021, and Microsoft brought in veteran Halo developer Joe Staten to work on the single player campaign.
Joe Staten just so happens to have been the lead writer for Bungie’s Destiny, which itself suffered the effects of a last minute re-imagining of its story in the lead-up to its release in 2014.
In all, the news surrounding Halo Infinite isn’t giving fans much reason to hope that it’ll be the next great instalment in the series. Gamers have long ago learned that projects like these are delicate things; shake them up one too many times, and whatever eventually comes out might be a garbled mess.
That said, we’re always ready to be happily surprised! A release date is yet to be revealed but come sometime in 2021, Halo Infinite will be yours to play.
