Following up on the recent news of Microsoft cutting thousands of jobs, sources now claim that Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has been hit particularly hard, with Director Joe Staten leaving the studio. It's hardly a secret that the development of the latest Halo title was troublesome, and while many hope that things will improve as more post-launch DLC comes out, it doesn't seem that the problems are over just yet.Specifically, Halo Infinite was billed as a true live-service game ahead of its release. 343 Industries promised a comprehensive content plan that included campaign DLC and other important additions, though these haven't yet materialized in any meaningful capacity. The latest batch of downsizing from Microsoft, however, suggests big changes on the horizon.According to Jason Schreier, Joe Staten is set to leave 343 Industries to rejoin Xbox Publishing. Staten initially joined 343 to release Halo Infinite and stuck around as a director from that point onwards. Having originally worked at Bungie for the first couple of mainline Halo titles and the original Destiny, Staten racked up a number of writing and directorial credits over the years and ended up joining Microsoft as a senior creative director in 2014. As for his involvement with 343 Industries and Halo Infinite, Staten worked as the campaign project lead, meaning that the info that he may be leaving is particularly problematic for fans of the game's single-player content.
Schreier underlined this notion, too, saying that the 343 Industries' campaign team has been hit hard in general, even outside of Staten leaving the project. Microsoft's gaming studio job cuts imply a massive streamlining of the company's game production capacities. The reason why 343 Industries is in a particularly precarious position, however, is that its work on Halo Infinite's single-player content has left the community wanting, which isn't necessarily the case with other affected studios, such as Bethesda.
This info may cause a bit of whiplash for some, considering the fact that Xbox just had its best ever quarter in Q1 2023, as per the company's own official reports. Microsoft's gaming division was said to have brought in $3.61B during the fiscal period, though it's not a huge stretch to imagine that the current job cuts and production streamlining had already been planned at the time the report was published.
Considering all of Microsoft's recent gaming acquisitions, it shouldn't be too surprising that the massive company would now be looking at ways to optimize its development capacities and content pipelines. The problem, however, is that the loss of important talent could be a huge issue for studios like 343 Industries, though the effects of Staten leaving might not be immediately apparent.
Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.