Every single Controversy 343i have gotten in with Halo

[@the_fc4life]

343's unfortunate legacy: 1. Release something broken/ incomplete 2. Don't talk about it 3. Take forever to fix it

[@igooog]

0. Use misleading language and marketing to drive hype in a way that makes no promises, so you can retroactively *claim* that you never *claimed* what your marketing did, in fact, *claim*.

[@MYNAMEISFROWNER]

I mean, Halo 5 at least had Warzone to keep everyone busy until Forge came. I think that's what's got people most irritated with Infinite - there's fucking nothing to do other than the same five game-modes with the same campaign.

[@Arbyfig]

4. Say sorry, I got it this time and then the halo community buys the game

[@2010cam1]

That's a bit of an understatement, the sheer amount of mistakes and disappointments is just incredible - I fell off when Halo 4 came out because it really let me down after being so hyped for the continuation of the amazing story we got throughout Halo 1-3 which was my childhood

[@DisDatK9]

@@igooog to be honest though, that was when they actually wanted to pretend like they gave a shit about the community. Now they just outright lie as if we have the memory of a goldfish. It also pissed me off that they just did what every company does when caught with its pants’ down, let the CEO “respectfully resign” and act as if from now on it’ll all be fine. I have zero trust in 343 now.

[@edwardblair7021]

A brief history

[@melkor3496]

lol

[@small3659]

‘Condensed 14th edition’

[@gooseegg617]

That's what it says

[@2kdavv]

Literally just whispered this to myself after looking at how long the video was lmao

[@ganymedehedgehog371]

Yeah I was about to say.

[@RoanokeGaming]

Far from turning the ship around. If anything they've sunk it into the Mariana trench. This studio has alot to prove before they win anyone's confidence and further misteps are just expected which will further damage halo and the community. I stand by the idea that 343 needs have the halo franchise taken away from them. For all those arguing "okay but what if the next studio doesn't know halo! We would have to start over!" Yah, neither does 343. I'd rather see someone else try than this studio continually blow away any chance of a good, stable, game.

[@HaggisOfDeath]

What I never understand is why these franchises with gigantic fanbases never hire from that pool of dedicated followers? Sure a lot of the people who write fanfiction or draw game art or make mods don't have a lot of skill; but there are a fair number who are great at it, and these people and their work tend to get incredibly popular. Why do they not hire them? I imagine many of these people would work for cheaper than your typical employee (not that I advocate for underpaying them, but considering that they have already sunk a huge amount of their free time working on free projects just because they love the setting I imagine it would be seen as a dream job for many), they would have already proven themselves to be great at whatever it is they are being hired for (art, writing or software-side), and the company then doesn't even need to put any effort into recruiting; they just let the best of the fan community bubble up to the top and then steal them away, making their dreams come true, and giving the fans exactly what they want. But nah. Let's hire some spaz with pink hair and a cow piercing through their nose who outwardly professes to hate the gaming community and brags about how they have never played, read or watched anything to do with the franchise.

[@mr.x4036]

Certain Affinity is the best and ONLY option for Halo now.

[@TheLegend-ff8ty]

Man, am I ever glad my quit moment was no playable Elites in Halo 5. Halo 4 was the last Halo game I actively played, unless we count MCC as a separate title. It really tears me up seeing how 343 have massacred Halo.

[@Onslaught29]

@@HaggisOfDeath amazingly well said dude ! Out of curiosity, you described in great detail that type of person ( creature more like :D ) in your last paragraph...do you have someone in mind specifically or were you just talking in general ? And if so, who is she coz i wanna have some good laughs :D

[@halomultiplayermoments]

Certain affinity should lead halo!

[@SgtBean]

I want to work for 343. Constantly break promises and under-deliver expectations but still keep my job. Sounds great

[@SniperRed0092]

😂

[@SniperRed0092]

Comment of the day. This made me laugh too much, I am high.

[@kay_keik7842]

this goes across the gaming industry. so many games that come out shit yet these people keep their jobs and you have idiots who defend them. this shit only happens in the gaming industry. anywhere else youd be fuckin let go without hesitation. i know my job would be in jeopardy if i fucked up especially when it deals with multi miliion dollar projects. but thats why i do great work and why they keep me. the gaming industry just has no fucking standards anymore

[@SgtBean]

@@SniperRed0092 glad I made ya laugh. Have a good day man

[@SniperRed0092]

@@SgtBean 😎

[@nikmagic8350]

Halo fans: your inability to safeguard the Halo franchise was a colossal failure. Hardcore Halo fans: nay, it was heresy! 343i: I will continue my campaign to create Halo titles. Halo fans: No! You will not... Soon the Great Journey shall begin, but when it does the weight of your heresy will stay your feet, and you shall be left behind.

[@cody4243]

Pure poetry right here. Well said sir

[@scarecrow3612]

This is the best thing I've read in years lol

[@norsehick4564]

Gold

[@WespectRamen]

Heresy of its most profound form!

[@rtasvadam1425]

But then the arbiter was right soooooooo hmmm are they right? jk

[@fluffytoaster427]

“First we have Frank O’Connor, who’s *very* recognizable from the Bungie days because…” “He’s bald?” “…he was the community manager.”

[@IceBreaker1127]

10 years later 343 is still trying to convince the world that they can be trusted with Halo. No one wanted them to fail and yet they did so in countless ways. I will be forever grateful that I grew up with the Bungie games.

[@mjisurdad]

Yes

[@xenosayain1506]

Aaand now people are praising 343 as saviours cause forge 1 year later

[@nickp8041]

@@xenosayain1506 The only people praising 343 are the same annoying white knights who's faces turn red when anyone brings up how the playerbase fell off a cliff.

[@Hit_by_a_Parked_Car]

@@nickp8041 "S-Steam playerbase means nothing most of them are on Xbox"

[@nickp8041]

@@Hit_by_a_Parked_Car Not old enough to know what data correlation is?

[@williammemecraig1357]

343's decisions over the years have B A F F L E D me. Like, it's truly amazing how incompetent they have been in almost every single area--from the simplest and most mundane to the most complex and intricate. Unfathomable ineptitude.

[@Cognitoman]

I agree, it’s insane , it’s like they are trolling us

[@BlackMoonHowls]

And HI is NOT going anywhere any time soon, sad face.

[@eazyv2069]

They thrive because when it comes down to hard reality you people who still care about participating in the franchise will always buy everything from them in the hopes of some sort of miraculous improvement. You will watch every video from every little content creator about the state and future of the games. 343, like Bungie since releasing Destiny, know full well they have an audience perfectly conditioned for selling anything to without ever incurring a risk of failure.

[@EnderGhost119]

Didn't frank say he only hired people who hated Halo at one point? The results don't seem that perplexing to me.

[@caramelldansen2204]

Ineptitude? No. Profitable.

[@exoticbutters4212]

Ironic that the one success of 343i, MCC, is mainly a compilation of games they didn't make

[@supaskiltz9877]

And even then it wasn’t a success for a long time, I remember giving the game back to GameStop back in like 2014 and got $2 for it. The game also sold for around $5 for a very long time.

[@ninjagoboy46]

@@supaskiltz9877 at least in the UK, you can still find it for ridiculously low prices!

[@xenosayain1506]

@@supaskiltz9877 I argued in gamestop for an hour for a full refund under the ground it literally doesn't work. They didnt believe me. After prhed customers sided with me they popped the disc in the demo xbox and was shocked they couldn't play it. I ended up getting my money back and never bought it again. I just reinstalled it off of ganepass.

[@117johnpar]

MCC was and mostly still is a complete botch. Its also mostly not 343 studios working on it.

[@117johnpar]

That was a success? I must be reading the alternate timeline headlines.

[@darkmatter-mc5iv]

you know, the splitscreen Co-op was the funniest thing. Nearly a few days later after 343 said it couldn't be done, people immediately rip the game apart and find that it is possible. And it never amazes me, that people with less experience, and less tools, can make games BETTER than million dollar companies.

[@spartanq7781]

It's not that they can't do it. 343 are simply refusing to do it for whatever reason. The slow as hell additions to Halo Infinite are intentional. Don't you think it is weird that that they only ever release new content in the early season cycle? They're slowly adding content to artificially maintain the "live service". That is even worse to me.

[@Jay-bf8yp]

343 has an odd approach. People who hopped on board the Halo train after CE now have kids who are of age to play couch co-op with thier mom/dad. Looks like I'll just look forward to playing Bungie's games with my son.

[@darkmatter-mc5iv]

@@Jay-bf8yp yeah, I joined recently and even now I'm still playing splitscreen with my own dad, who is newer to the franchise. It's just one of those things that's an incentive to get people to play together just because it's an option.

[@Leticro]

I mean, the people just unlocked the feature on 343's progress on split screen. People didn't implement their own split screen mod or anything, else they would not have found the spilt screen feature. The fact split screen wasn't perfect is why they didn't officially launch it (due to lower performance in the open world on certain scenarios, especially on lower hardware). It's not that the devs aren't doing quality work, it's just how they're handling this stuff.

[@redmist6630]

343 is getting worse and worse. during h4 they were like "we gonna be the best game studio ever." now they're just like snoozin

[@Jamesnuch]

I haven’t watched yet, but I hope you mentioned when they told one guy he was hired as a community manager, he moved his whole family across the country, and then they hired the biggest dirtball “Postums” instead. What a terrible company

[@Cognitoman]

Wtf lol😂, they told him he was hired then after he moved they said “nope can’t work here now”?

[@Jamesnuch]

@@Cognitoman yes that’s exactly what happened

[@bend.7590]

Postums sucks

[@McBoofus]

@@bend.7590 he blocked me because I stated a fact about 343 lol.

[@JJAB91]

@@bend.7590 No wonder his wife left him.

[@crimsonkaiju7085]

I think the fact that the Infinite section is about 25 mins out of a 70 min video says a lot about the current state of Halo. Although a disheartening topic, I really appreciate how well crafted this video is.

[@orielsy]

I think that's just recency bias. Because MCC absolutely takes the cake as the biggest cluster fuck 343 have handed us.

[@armaggedon4christ]

Ok somewhat unpopular opinion, I dont hate Infinites story! However...the multiplayer is....look im an oldschool H2/H3 player, I liked how NOONE had an advantage over another, all weapons were the same, your skill, tactics and map knowledge was what got you a win, not having some gucci gun...

[@armaggedon4christ]

Also on an added not, Im not a fan of the way armor cust works...we should be able to put any part on any "frame"......like in H3

[@rooknado]

@@armaggedon4christAgreed

[@justinrodriguez3430]

The fact that this is over an hour long, speaks volumes about 343 and their shortcomings. This whole fiasco has made me miss Bungie a whole lot😪

[@erc3338]

Doubly sad that if you don't like the gameplay of Destiny, all you can play from Bungie that isn't Halo, is *Marathon* from the ninties.

[@Del_987]

Could easily make an hour video of the controversies with Bungie since they left Microsoft, sadly. It's not like Destiny is the posterchild for fulfilled promises

[@DarkPaladinX77]

People need to realize that most (if not at least around half) of the Bungie dev's who worked on Halo aren't even with Bungie anymore.

[@bigchunky7499]

@@erc3338 destiny is such garbage really sad

[@ddsjgvk]

I'm done with this I am so done with this bungee killed Halo okay like where was free for free supposed to go after Halo reach that game was the one to introduce all my abilities the only thing Halo 4 did definitely was made splint default face reality

[@SolarMechanic]

Small mistake: BTB was actually down for about 2 months. It went down in mid-december and they pushed out a patch in mid jauary which did nothing. It was only a second patch in February that got it back up and running.

[@randyortonsbulge]

More like 3 months…..

[@mmcion1]

I remember logging in late March and it still had major issues. I got tired of waiting by then and Uninstalled

[@daltonburroughs3811]

You guys left out how controversial the H4 and 5 art style shift was. Some liked it but I would say most didn't.

[@voodoodolll]

Big one

[@Slender_Man_186]

Don’t forget Halo Infinite promising a return of the old art style, only to make a bunch of samurai armors and crap that looks like it was ripped from Killzone, a failed Halo killer franchise. Yes Hayabusa existed, but that was a one-time nod to Team Ninja for helping with Halo 3’s MP, it’s not like there were 10 sets just like it.

[@harbingerdawn]

He didn't leave that out, he addressed it and said that he didn't want to focus on things that were mainly a matter of opinion, instead focusing on more concrete controversies about things that 343 massively screwed up or times where they misled people or broke promises. Whether the art style stuff _is_ merely a matter of opinion is a separate issue; I think there's a strong argument to be made that it's not.

[@ichwill7536]

@@Slender_Man_186 km still peeved everyone has flaming recon as someone who didn't play mcc till 2022

[@NeanderthalNorthman]

I still stand by master cheifs armor is better than the original armor. But I would gladly give that up for a better halo 4, 5 and infinite

[@scarlettwilliamson5370]

Am i the only one who remembers that when 343 took over on Reach they immediately added a ton of arbitrary kill zones to popular forge world maps to block players off from a lot of fun yet technically "oob" spots ie. roofs, ledges, under bridges

[@randyortonsbulge]

Been complaining about this for ever all the halo reach detractors always seem to forget this! Hahahahha such a joke.

[@supaskiltz9877]

I only liked that for infection, having 10 people stand on a roof with only 1 entrance was not a fun time and usually caused whoever was infected first to just leave the game

[@scarlettwilliamson5370]

@@supaskiltz9877 it could get annoying if everyone made it up there quickly but usually what i remember is a tense dash for those spots while the infected closed in. Maybe someone wasn't good at jumping and held everyone behind them up, or everyone was in a hurry bouncing into each other and messing up other's attempts to get up. I rarely remember most of the players getting up there during any single round and by the point those that did make it got up they had at least a few zombies testing all the angles and getting anyone who got too close to the edge, if not managing to get up there themselves

[@mrprotoman154]

That single handedly killed Reach infection for me. I hated those edited maps we were now forced to play on. Shame infection has kinda been dead since as well.

[@noahwoodley3964]

I remember this.. they fuckin ruined reach

[@TheBogcast]

As an OG Halo fan from literally Day 1, it's sad how 343i has absolutely destroyed the franchise. I had to start laughing at all of their mishaps just to ease the heartbreak.

[@ryanwitman8672]

Dude.. literally SAME. I remember captivated by Halo 1 when I was 6 years old, being amazed playing online multiplayer for the first time in H2 when I was 9, watching the trailer for “Finish the fight 2007” when I was 12. By the time I graduated high school, my childhood franchise had been murdered by 343. I think the appropriate theme song for Halo is “Lament for Jenkins” lol

[@haydentravis3348]

Halo 4 was the easiest 60 bucks I ever saved. Saw the chiefs armor and knew to stay away.

[@AzureRoxe]

"I don't think that's what people want" Ah yes, the tried and true argument from game studios that they know what the fanbase wants more than the fanbase ACTIVELY TELLING THEM WHAT THEY WANT.

[@J05TI]

To be fair, most people don't know what they want at all.

[@darthgamer9861]

@@J05TIbut they know what they dont want

[@J05TI]

@@darthgamer9861 Many of them don't know that, either. Many women will say they don't like bad boys who treat them poorly, yet will chase those same bad boys.

[@HarleyHerbert]

@@J05TI They know that's what they really want, they just don't want to admit it publicly to save face

[@J05TI]

@@HarleyHerbert Not all of them. Some genuinely don't know what they want. That goes for some men too, frankly.

[@mastergecko1178]

“A brief history of 343 controversies.” Video is more than one hour long, just goes to show how much of an incompetent and mismanaged company 343 actually is.

[@LobotomyTC]

And it only scratches the surface. I believe 343 was always meant to ruin Halo, just like all media is being ruined these days. It's on purpose, there's no way they're hiring people just to suck ass at their jobs, if that wasn't the intention from the getgo. This won't be the first or the last time Microsoft buys something just to Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish it.

[@franklinjeh]

I was not aware of the 343Postum Tweet, how is it possible that after a response like that did not lost his job? The fact he was relocated is not enough. And yes, It's we have been going through really tough times these years, but imagine if I had this attitude: "Sorry I cannot operate that critical patient because I'm concerned that my hamsters are being raised in a planet in constant war..."

[@Camilhurt]

Dumb comparison but go off

[@thekey1175]

The company culture promoted by microsoft is cancerous and the only way i see the game coming out the other side is massive layoffs and a complete rework of the hiring process.

[@bldontmatter5319]

Yeah, it's like a truck driver saying he crashed because he was worried about nuclear war. No one cares. Get the job done and do it right, or get fired.

[@hellboy6536]

@@Camilhurt Not really. You cant behave like a petulant child to your customers is most jobs, why is 343 allowing it? because they are horrifically incompetent.

[@greenbean2222]

@@Camilhurt You're not very smart are you?

[@Aigis31]

1 hour of video? sounds like a great listen while I'm doing chores!

[@AshiePhee]

My favorite part of this hour long brief history is that even though it covers a lot it doesn't cover everything.

[@DeusExMunKy]

He totally didn’t mention the “14 Day Buy And Play” fiasco where the paid map packs were obtainable for free due to a loadout DLC bug, and 343 pretended that it was the plan all along, going so far as to release a “surprise!” Post about it.

[@andresgarza8511]

@@DeusExMunKy that was back in halo 4 the pitt dlc? you know the ones wh oadded the mark V and the sh%tty version of the ODST?

[@uhoh6706]

I still don’t understand how 343 has truly dedicated fans towards it that will always give them the benefit of the doubt with such an expansive history of constantly under delivering, deception, and borderline incompetence with every single product they have released. Even now I still see people coping with Halo Infinite by saying “It will get good eventually guys let’s just hang on!” Like it’s just sad at this point man.

[@ryanwitman8672]

I would argue that they don’t have those people anymore. At least not in significant numbers. Hence why the player population is lower than awful games like Battlefield 2042 and why many of the developers have chosen to leave the studio. Infinite was the last gasp for 343 and they TOTALLY whiffed lol

[@PSYCHOPATH_AT_LARGE]

The fact that you need 1hr for a “brief” history on 343 tells you everything you need to know about them

[@Gillymonster18]

True that. It’s baffling when you hear it all condensed into one place how Halo has any legs to stand on at all by now.

[@PSYCHOPATH_AT_LARGE]

@@Gillymonster18 Since their most successful release is a hijacking of what made Bungie, which they somehow managed to still screw up and are slowly poisoning, it's truly baffling how they have managed to continue existing.

[@trentonbonk9202]

Great video. It really highlights 343's efficiency. I did not know the number of external studios brought on to make the Reach maps and other content they advertised as "343" creations. Taking all of those instances together, you can really conclude the studio has been a mismanaged mess since before Halo 4. It took them 3 years to develop Halo 5, which was essentially fine tuning the multiplayer and creating a 6-8 hour campaign, something other studios could have done in less time. Then of course Halo Infinite, where even if it was delayed to 2022, still would not have been nearly complete. My main takeaway is that 343 has not actually built anything from the ground up. They would reuse and update old stuff, whether models, guns, or the game engine, and market it as being made from the ground up. It is ridiculous and the whole studio is a disappointment.

[@joshuavidrine889]

If you gave any group of Halo fans that have modding skills a budget one tenth the size of 343's and put a lore master fan on their team, they could make a far better Halo game that's far more faithful to Bungie's Halo in a quarter of the time that 343 takes. Or at least I'd hope so, after seeing what the Fallout: The Frontier fan mod team puked out after a decade...

[@BlackMoonHowls]

@@joshuavidrine889 Yeah terrible video game that was but a great tech demo that WAS not fun to play.

[@the_corvid97]

@@joshuavidrine889 Put Joe Staten ahead of that team and you're set, as he would actually keep the team focused. The Frontier didn't have leadership so it went off the rails instead.

[@kay_keik7842]

look up halo reborn. that is literally what you described and it looks like its gonna be a great mod

[@SlyClone96]

Me and the crew that I was with to get these vidmaster challenges we’re so pissed off because we spent hours working to get those achievements to unlock recon armor for ourselves. And then they decide to just give it to everybody

[@BlackMoonHowls]

Effectively making it worthless and now no one cares anymore. I was all about that Hayabusa armor. I only liked the Recon because other people did, I think the helmet looks weird TBH.

[@BlackMoonHowls]

At least Dare wore it better.

[@xenosayain1506]

I remember spending 30 hours trying to do vidmaster endure. We got it the week the challenges came out. Then they handed out the armor to everyone. I was beyond disappointed.

[@armaggedon4christ]

@@BlackMoonHowls i had hayabusa, but I cant remember why having it was hard, or even if it was!

[@armaggedon4christ]

I still did them, before I ever touched my recon, it didnt feel right to use it for "free"

[@itsKimi]

10 years of disappointment and bad games... and here we are in 2022.

[@Sweetchild911]

Thanks for keeping it brief

[@b0sch0]

343i entire history is drama , you can really see when the corporate side of Microsoft took over this franchise completely

[@LaurensPP]

I always find this a weird argument. Corporate does not equate a bad game. Also from a corporate perspective Halo has been failing enormously the last years. Barring mobile, you still need a good product to make it into a gold mine. It just has been bad, bad management.

[@aidancloke4398]

100% it would be interesting to know how much is 343 decisions and how much is Microsoft decisions

[@junioraltamontent.7582]

@@LaurensPP For lore heavy IP's like Halo, "corporate" is rightfully considered anathema, as the story becomes driven by socially fixated focus groups instead of the usual writers. They try to insert generic Hollywood story beats that are incongruous and jarring when compared with the subtlety and unique story the community is used to. Corporations have a certain style of story writing that they trust and it never is faithful to the original.

[@BlackMoonHowls]

@@junioraltamontent.7582 More like disregard all source material make literal new smelly feces, SHILL it.

[@LaurensPP]

@@junioraltamontent.7582 For me, corporate mainly means profit maximalization as primary goal, sometimes this destroys the original product. But corporate didn't do any good for the bottom line of the profitability of the franchise. Halo could have made way more money if it was handled well.

[@iKiwed]

I want to point out that everything that worked alright during these over 10 years of 343's career is made by Certain Affinity. It says a lot about everything and anything.

[@illianstrange5556]

It sucks because if you look at the campaign Easter eggs in halo infinite you can really tell the the Lil guy developers at 343i really are trying but the higher ups just don't care at all. :< You put depresso in my expresso 343i...

[@BlackMoonHowls]

@@ShockingVortex201 They just simply can't hear it through all the money counting they are doing.

[@harbingerdawn]

*espresso

[@illianstrange5556]

@@harbingerdawn it's a play on the word expression. Just like depresso isn't a word either. 🤣

[@harbingerdawn]

@@illianstrange5556 yeah, but "espresso" matches with "depresso" better than "expresso" does, so I figured you didn't do it intentionally

[@illianstrange5556]

@@harbingerdawn I did it on purpose. Thanks for trying to help. 🤣

[@SirPream]

Remember when we could veto maps? Too bad we can't veto 343.

[@caramelldansen2204]

"Dictatorship of the bourgeoisie" moments compilation.

[@lucifersonion9812]

I veto by vowing to never buy anything from 343. Even if they make the greatest halo game in existence, I will not buy it. They lost me and all of my friends when halo 5 introduced loot crates.

[@xenosayain1506]

@@lucifersonion9812 same.

[@ryanwitman8672]

Press x to veto snowbound… I mean Bonnie Ross

[@chiefisreal3476]

343 failures : THE MOVIE Also "what are you doing to halo?!" fits so well with everything....good bye bonnie you will not be missed for running halo straight into the ground. I could defend 343 to a point but the TV show was the breaking point for me.

[@Largentina.]

Bonnie being gone won't change anything. This studio will continue to be terrible.

[@chiefisreal3476]

@@Largentina. Well with the new CEO basically being the one who had the Master Chief collection fixed in charge (so I heard) I have more hope than 0 which is about what I had about before. Time will tell. 343 is not like old bungie but then again new bungie isn't the same as old bungie. Things were better back then.

[@Largentina.]

@@chiefisreal3476 Time will tell. But time has already told, it's been over a decade. This fanbase is the worst.

[@nonya_bidness]

Lmao, yeah, the fanbase is the problem. Funnily enough, throughout the bungie years, halo was known for having a great fanbase. Crazy, right?

[@Largentina.]

@@nonya_bidness When did I say the fanbase is the problem?

[@lifegoeson05]

I don’t mind 1 hour worth! Thank you for your hard work I’m sure this was several hours of editing alone.

[@TheMysticalTank]

343: We’ve learned from our mistakes! Halo fans: I doubt that very much.

[@Gillymonster18]

Read that in Kat’s voice.

[@nukinonmalawn1]

Frankly, the writing was one the wall for 343 when they made Halo 4 and decided, in their infinite wisdom, to continue an already finished story. Arguably, that single decision would inevitably lead to franchise failure, no matter how clever or capable they might have been.

[@IceBreaker1127]

Halo 4 loosely followed the Forerunner Saga books. I loved that series and it gave so much depth into what Halo 4 was scratching the surface with. The Halo 4 campaign is enjoyable if having read those. But to your point, ODST and Reach proved a Halo game can be great when not playing as Chief. They could of used a new character in Halo 4 and went from there.

[@nukinonmalawn1]

Unfortunately, a video game story requiring books to make it more interesting indicates that it is either a bad or misguided story. Either way, yes, Halo needed to look backward, rather than forward, because there is a quote a lot of Human Covenant War and not a lot told about it. That would've been a much better direction to take.

[@SneedandFeed69]

This

[@IceBreaker1127]

@@nukinonmalawn1 Nope, it shouldn't be required. The books have for sure helped me continue to enjoy the Halo universe when the games have disappointed. 343 thinks Halo has to have Chief's face on it to sell but I'd like to see a Forerunner game series. Their battle with humans, flood and graveminds. I'll keep dreaming

[@joshuavidrine889]

The Halo story concluded with Chief's sacrifice and him staying behind in a cryo pod after the detonation of the ring over the Ark. Anything afterwards that says that the Forerunners were actually a crazy alien vegetarian empire that oppressed ancient humans isn't cannon to me, especially after 343 Guilty Spark directly says to Chief, and I quote, "You ARE Forerunner!" in Halo 3's climax, and that there's concept art for Halo 2 of a Forerunner tomb being opened to reveal a human skeleton. If 343 wanted to tell a different Halo story, they could have looked at any number of crazy events from elsewhere, like the Headhunter spartan IIIs, further ODST operations, or expand on Covenant Spec Ops. Heck, if they introduced Spartan IVs correctly and didn't have them act so un-spartanlike, they could have made them much cooler to fans. Infinite's background stories of the last surviving Spartan IV teams from Infinity on Zeta treated them much better than how the IVs were introduced with Palmer and Spartan Ops. Locke was a cool character concept too, being an ONI agent uplifted into Spartanhood, but Halo 5's story was utter garbage. It's taken over a decade to get here and 343 still is floundering with finding Halo.

[@bebo76338]

This vid lines up perfectly with Moist Critikal's "worst video game developer" upload. It's truly strange & bewildering - borderline _insanity_ - that 343, and by extension Microsoft, could let _so much_ shit happen to one of the biggest-named franchises in video game history. Unbelievable. 💀

[@Gillymonster18]

Microsoft never had any investment or commitment in Halo except squeezing it for all the money they could. Which is ironic because if they cared even half as much as Bungie did, Halo would still be rock solid, raking in cash and expanding its fanbase. Instead it’s a slowly rotting corpse kept on life support by comparatively few diehards.

[@AscendingBliss]

Appropriately, this video is over an hour long. And I will sit through every single minute of it.

[@Joe-hm1zk]

I'm so happy you mentioned the Team Respawn tweets. Halo Wars 2 was literally down for multiple days PRIOR to the Russia stuff going down.

[@thekey1175]

doesnt even matter. That man shouldve been fired on the spot

[@norsehick4564]

A lot of people forgot about a lot of this stuff, I did for sure. This has gone on far to long

[@4th1st73]

I love how a “brief history” of their controversies and drama is over an hour long.

[@witherwolf3316]

One thing I've learned is that 343 is more concerned about their public image than the quality of their work. They only focus on addressing criticism that has widespread reach, and pretend the rest don't exist. There are still hundreds of bugs in the Master Chief Collection to this day that go unfixed, stuff that is very overt and really interrupts the experience, but as long as it's small enough that 343 doesn't get any public flak from something like a game journalist website, they choose to ignore it. That's why videos like these are important, we need to hold 343 accountable for their actions, and especially their inactions.

[@Miller09095]

"Brief" lol good lord that is a hell of a list.

[@mrpostalftw8209]

Fun fact, according to an article showcased in the 343 VS The World documentary 343 was inspired by Riot Games, Blizzard, and CS:GO, during the development of Halo 5.

[@_Phen_]

makes sense

[@supaskiltz9877]

Here’s a fun sad fact: The time between Halo CE to the end of Halo Reach is around 10 years. (2001-2011) While Halo 4 up until current infinite is also around 10 years. (2012-2022) Halo has been considered bad by a large majority just as long as it’s been considered good.

[@euphoriam4020]

Something I haven't heard many people touch on was all of the blog updates that promised features such as RTX and mod tools which have never been brought up again and as of right now there is no indication that 343 has any intention of pursuing these features.

[@patinate]

Let's not forget that 343 planned for us not to know about armour coatings until the game released and it would be "too late to change anything". They only started talking about them, and how "good for us actually" they would be AFTER companies that were contractually obligated to release their cross promotion materials let the cat out of the bag. These cross promotions only started when Infinite was slated to have released.

[@Brooklyn_Trash_King]

Someone probably already mentioned it but in the same video they cancelled split screen they insinuated that halo is and alway has been a highly competitive game despite ex bungie Devs saying the game was created as a fun party game ment for casual gamers

[@clydemarshall8095]

The helmet in the original CEA trailer actually bears some similarity to one of the original Spartan helmets from CE’s early development in the late ‘90s and 2000.

[@orielsy]

If you go read Pierre Hintze's bio (the new head of the studio; it's on 343's website) towards the bottom of the second paragraph he describes how he leveraged experienced tech leads in working with external contractors on MCC. Keep that in mind while you watch this video and take note of 343's reliance on third parties. Contractors couldn't possibly care for the IP the same way salaried employees would. Hopefully Hintze recognizes how detrimental this has and continues to be for 343 and turns away from this practice.

[@elialvarez161]

Gotta let y’all know I love absolutely love this channel. I found it about 2 years ago and I’ve always kept up with it ever since. Y’all keep up the great work you mean more than you know!

[@Marksman3434]

How the f*** was Frank O'Connor considered a worthy choice by Microsoft to be the franchise director? Dude was just a CM during the Bungie days, he never was involved in the development of the games. And from what I've been reading about him, man, it's really understandable then why the franchise has been so poorly handled since it passed to 343. The entire upper management of the studio have been a disaster since the start. Bonnie Ross leaving is most likely a good start, but O'Connor and Wolfkill are still there, so I don't think much will be improved with them still in those top positions.

[@ZSTE]

He's also responsible for the whole Humans and Forerunners being different.

[@cameronmckillop6448]

It's concerning to learn many years later that Frank was just a CM and put into lead director role. Warframe is doing the exact same thing with its dev team. The community manager will now be the director of the game. She was an intern, turned community manager, the voice of what is essentially Cortana for your character, the person who managed weekly dev streams, now the director of an ever evolving online game. I hope the similarities of CM to director stops there.

[@jiffbombastic3694]

When I played Reach on MCC, the end credits were just gone. I thought it was a glitch at first, but later realized they had just straight up ripped out the “thank you” message from Bungie. That pissed me off.

[@thesamejackalsniperthatkil117]

They're jealous because lone wolf is far superior to anything 343 shat out

[@peon149]

This is what gets to me most about MCC On reach: Red flame (legendary) = code from legendary edition. Blue flame (eternal) = logged into the app to redeem on bungie day. MCC: Battle pass

[@kieranbell2221]

fuck the controversies, 343's worst crime is thinking that a single human being on this planet finds mister chief funny

[@thesamejackalsniperthatkil117]

The shit pickle of halo.

[@8instantramen]

Who even gives a shit about Mister Chef. I still don't know why hes shilled hard. I feel like Im missing something but no that's all there is to him. How the fuck did that thing get a Mega construx figure and become a AI in Infinite

[@calebburrichter8452]

Infinite fixed speed runner tricks because the devs were angry about it during an episode of “devs react to speedrunner” on IGN, I believe.

[@greenh2975]

1:07:42 What I remember was that the servers went down BEFORE the invasion started, so it felt like Postums using that as an excuse really pissed me off. Hopefully I’m wrong on the timeline of that, but still using a tragedy as a scapegoat to their incompetent communication skills is really shitty.

[@kay_keik7842]

even if a war is going on, unless you are in that territory, then stfu and do your job. not only that but it was highly unprofessional of him.

[@Aralaas]

@@kay_keik7842 "Sorry, not coming into work. Africa, you know."

[@optimus27000]

That and he was tweeting on his alt account about how this would affect his crypto investments.

[@CRAZYGREGFILMS]

Despite the change in management, it hasn't been that long to really see what changes will come, it's very unclear what could happen, though I am happy to see changes happening, as I said, it's unclear. One can hope but if I must be very honest, I've nearly lost patience with 343 a number of times.

[@IrishZOMBIE117]

Until watching this I legitimately believed that 343 had a good chunk of ex-Bungie devs migrate over to keep working on Halo. Holy fuck. Well, whatever respect I had for 343 just died a good deal more because leaving fans to believe that about the studio and never clarifying it is absolutely fucked up. Whenever a dev says "fans don't know what they want. They think they know what they want, but what they *really* want is this thing over here that I'm working on currently." - that's a big ole red flag that says the devs have no idea what the fans want and is super out of touch with their communities. Ninja bitching that fire marshals and ESI staff get to eat first is an absolute joke. The straight up lies about Halo Infinite's customization is wild. The "millions" of combo options was obviously hyperbolic, but the options available doesn't even come vaguely close to being enough. Reach had more at launch and that's the bar you've got to meet. Then they straight up lie about how things are unlocked. "Alot of our options are unlocked only through gameplay". Entirely false. There is a handful of things unlocked through gameplay, and they are only unlocked in campaign and only unlocked via walking up to a box and pressing "x". If you don't buy anything in Halo Infinite, no season pass, no campaign, no store items, and you only the game for free you can only earn the cosmetics that are available in events when those events are active. So folks getting into the game day one will have some options by now, folks getting into the game right now will have exactly zero options save for some basic colors that they can't even customize. Absolute horse shit on 343's front. Coatings are dog shit. Every element of customization in Halo Infinite is designed to push MTX's and the store front, and it's gross. On the Slipspace Engine. Building a brand new game engine from the ground up is an undertaking that I think a lot of folks unfamiliar with software dev don't really understand. It's incredibly difficult to make a new engine, and the expectations today are far higher than ever before. So, the Slipspace engine being built on the back of the old Halo engines isn't something that surprises me. The big issue (as highlighted in the vid) is the misdirection from 343 yet again, they need to be honest with their community about what they're building. Stop lying to people. It makes them distrust you and dislike what you make, even if it has some positives to it. 343 "bug fixing" things that are genuinely fun to engage with is peak 343. Glad they un-did most of that damage, but still. It's wild that they thought that was a good idea. Tank gun is so freakin fun. I wish they'd reinstate the fusion coil surfing too. Halo tv show is absolute dog shit. Remove the "Halo" from the show and the writing is still shit. Something that wasn't brought up, and in fairness I don't see a lot of folks in the community talk about it, is the sound design issues in Infinite. The sound in Infinite is not balanced correctly and whenever an audio bit played behind the player character it plays at a borderline muted volume level, making it near impossible to hear enemies approach you from behind, and even shoot at you from behind. 343 blamed this on players individual hardware and have been ignoring it ever since. Everyone that I've talked to personally about it (siblings and friends, etc) have all also experienced it as well and we all use entirely different sound systems and devices. So, it's not the hardware. The audio balancing is just bad. Wish they'd fix it so that I could hear the 2000 lb titanium suit wearing super soldier sprint up to me from behind and unload and entire magazine of high caliber bullets into my back. That would be nice. Great video breakdown of all the shit 343 has shoveled for Halo. I'd be interested in one for Bungie. They definitely weren't controversy free either, so it would be an interesting juxtaposition of the studios hardships leading this IP.

[@thoughtsforthebuilders]

I didn't realize till the other day that if you finish the Halo 2 campaign on anniversary graphics, the broken Cortana bug will show up in remastered graphics 🤔 Still 🤔🤔🤔

[@noobishmacgaming]

Wait a second the one where cortana in halo 1 has an untextured face in cutscenes?

[@thoughtsforthebuilders]

@@noobishmacgaming nah the MCC-only bug in the final cutscenes of Halo 2. where Cortano says "okay. shoot." and then it fades out (game ends) and it even took me to the MCC post-session results screen. and then, before reloading the menu, it rerenders a still frame from the cutscene environment. the camera is like partially inside Cortana's face so she looks particularly spooky

[@ritethumstik]

This was a killer video!! I really enjoy your hard work. This well-researched, long form video style is great

[@halolasomaster3900]

I'm glad you mention Halo Wars 2 we are often forgotten about when people talk about Halo!

[@LostShipMate]

I realize its minor, but Halo CE Anniversary still makes me angry. The fact that the only way I can play Halo CE is through the Original Xbox or on pc with a lot of mod fixes is infuriating. Side note: the Original Xbox in your closet is probably corroding, might want to fix that(look it up)

[@ObstacleRace]

I see the title "A brief history" then I see the timestamp is over an hour. Me: Surprised it isn't longer.

[@stevefred2694]

Damn. This really painted the big picture for me

[@BillyTheKidOfficialYT]

Yeah, I’m still playing infinite cause it’s so fun, but I really see how scammy this company is, hopefully things turn around and infinite turns out a success

[@JPOG7TV]

This and Marco Styles video ‘343i vs the world’ are the quintessential guides to how halo has been handled ever since a small team of people wanted a franchise to continue when the parent company didn’t feel like it. Passion only goes so far…

[@shadowthelegend100]

Legend has it that their learning experience lasted for a whole decade

[@pmqtpqbtmz3956]

The extra loud music at 43:30 is fitting. Great video!

[@aeriumfour6096]

"we have aspirations to become to best games studio in the world" *[Insert El Risitas laughing meme here]*

[@fernfelix4237]

Thank you for this video. Great watch/listen. Keep it up, these docs are great!

[@brian197686]

How hard can it be to implement split screen? It's not like reinventing the wheel.

[@better-shotgun]

Thanks for keeping this incredible brief so I could watch this on my 20 minute lunch break.

[@CmdrBrannick]

I'd say it's probably 90% of 343's entire existence. I think Halo under 343 is pretty much summed up in one of the first quotes in this video. They don't want to make Halo, they want to make their Halo. It's not the same thing. Personally, with Infinite I'd say they started to turn it around but they've currently stalled the ship and they need a good push to get it moving again.

[@EvidentlyEezy]

Marty talking about how 343 Bastardized his soundtrack sounded like a disappointed father.

[@BigHailFan]

The fact this much crap was allowed is astounding. Any other company would have been hired half way into this but somehow Microsoft allowed this crap for TEN YEARS. My dream is they retcon all the crap Reed did.

[@Bigwave3K]

“Making a game on the scale of halo takes hundreds of people with different skills, a singular vision, and time…… and no employee benefits”

[@Zantus1997]

I think its funny that this video is a BRIEf history from 343, there is so much controversey sadly involved with their management of Halo

[@joshuavidrine889]

1:08:36 This is like if I went to a restaurant, ordered, then waited for over an hour for my food before asking where my order is and being met with "Well excuse me, I'm thinking about the poor starving kids in Africa. I'll be right with you," from the obviously pissy waitress. I hate how companies are suddenly trying to become beacons of "morality" and "virtue." I gave you my money for a product, and I expect that product to work and be given to me in a timely fashion. You don't get to preach at me while you're failing at your job, and even if you were doing your job properly I still don't want to be preached at.

[@Oatmealz]

I feel like that scan feature wouldn’t be bad at all, especially for new players that are trying go learn the lore. They just shouldn’t have made it a Kinect only feature, don’t know why that was a thing

[@Razerblade5703]

The fact that the video is an hour long is all you need to know about 343.

[@arsarma1808]

"Certain Affinity" is certainly a presumptuous name for a studio. It's like saying "since we port popular things, people MUST like it!"

[@harbingerdawn]

First, "certain affinity" could mean numerous different things, not just "people are certain to like our stuff". Second, it was founded by Bungie devs and their first project was creating DLC multiplayer maps for Halo 2, so their mission was not merely to "port" things.

[@Miniman15]

"Maybe it's just a bumpy start" Oh? That's what it is? *eating popcorn*

[@aqworldshayabusa1114]

Ironic how, after years of fixes and reworks, MCC would go from their most broken release, to probably the best thing theyve ever made

[@ryanwitman8672]

The only reason why people play MCC is because it’s the only way they can play the original games they like that weren’t made by morons

[@abbasmehdi1173]

Remember when all of the Halo games were having splits screen co-op campaign, forge on release date and look now, replay of missions is under update. 343, take a look at Halo 3 ODST level replay ability, you can explore the Mombasa and at the same time, you can go to your favorite mission site and play missions from there. Anyway, great video and I wish the best for the 343 for future.

[@smoldoggy1005]

It’s sad that only now are youtubers finally making anti 343 videos but for the wrong reason: now it’s a trend to hate them. Yet they never seemed to care prior to the 12 years they’ve been destroying Halo

[@Largentina.]

Agreed. These videos should've been made over half a decade ago.

[@Cognitoman]

I think people have finally had enough, everyone has been thinking this since MCC, people gave them a break on halo 4 because it was the first game... but MCC is what really got the hate started, then they fucked up again on halo 5... so people were pretty pissed by then... and now we have halo infinite ... and now people have had it, people are putting up with it anymore. I haven’t played in 3 months

[@WonderMePartyStrip]

They have finally opened their eyes.

[@NganKriete]

Some of us have been salty at 343 since 2012, others needed more time it seems…

[@RossMitchellsProfile]

It's not just youtubers, everyone has had it with them, even /r/halo which used to be full on damage control for 343 has turned on them.

[@SeraSmiles]

I have to say, having stopped playing halo for life reasons a bit before halo 4, it feels like you can just see the difference between something like the reaction Reach got (even from people who didn't like it) & every single game afterwards

[@Czechmate88]

No assassinations isn’t mentioned but is a dire sin for Infinite

[@redgarlicbred6228]

The fact that this is a short as it could possibly get is hilarious to me

[@jeff3221]

If you were to express 'unchecked ego' in numerical form, it would be: 343 They are the most arrogant studio in gaming. Constantly talking about how great they are, how they are shaping halo, how they are making halo their own, how they are evolving the franchise, how they know what the fans want and they have such an intimate knowledge that they even know more about what fans want than the fans themselves. I genuinely do not consider people that give 343i the benefit of the doubt, people. They are like sheep, they just munch of grass, they do not care that the field has suffered a drought for a decade, that the once lush, long, green blades they feasted on, have become stubby, brown, stalks in the barren and cracked dirt. They will just keep eating and follow their shepard. That may sound extreme, and it is. But why should I be civil with them? They are actively encouraging the torture of an IP near and dear to my heart. If you still play Halo, you don't get to complain. Yes, I have become a bitter zealot, I am as devout in my hatred as a 343 shill is in their love. I have been broken. Do not mourn me, there is room for you too. Two corpses, sharing one grave.

[@Ashamedofmypast]

21:33 "For the first time ever you can play the entire master chief saga on a single console." - this was the statement that made me dislike bonnie and stop believing in any of 343is rhetoric. I played that entire saga, start to finish, multiple times, in multiple regions, in multiple languages on the xbox 360.

[@SyedTauhidul]

I'm not a halo fan but even I feel bad for the fans and utter rage at 343. No fandom deserves this level of incompetency.

[@fase1doughnut]

Minor thing, but as a former competitor player from Australia, was great to see my boy Momentum getting used as a source. Weird to see someone you’ve played against on a video like this

[@sigro95]

And then there are people who genuinely shill for 343i... I don't get 'em. I don't judge 'em either... but I really don't 'em.

[@Prehistoeif]

They are either longtime diehards who are in denial or are new towards the series in recent times. It goes both ways anyway due to how players standards are at an all time low.

[@thesamejackalsniperthatkil117]

@@Prehistoeif or they're people with goldfish brains that forgot how disastrous halo 4 black ops 2 was and suddenly think it is this grandiose masterpiece on equal footing with reach.

[@Slender_Man_186]

@@thesamejackalsniperthatkil117 no no, it’s Call of Halo 4: Spartan Warfare.

[@TesQu4re]

Thank you very much for making this. It's eye opening and hits hard.

[@fadedflystv]

Here's an annoyance for me personally. Helioskrill armor in H5 was awarded to you for completing all the MCC campaigns on Legendary. 343i pulled a Recon and ended up giving it to everyone not long into Halo 5.

[@ikai640]

I had a very bright professor who built his own airline and sold it now he is a sort of freelance consultant, and he mentioned 3 things he looks for that make bad companies: 1. greed, 2. internal politics and 3. bad management. Not mismanagement but bad management i.e. if you constantly make bad decisions and don't fix prior mistakes, and the rest well... self explanatory. I see these point connect to 343i

[@yolsil775]

Yeah man, tough decisions like cutting tons of player-friendly options and modes.

[@jaredcherry4049]

I actually really like the longer form content. Love the video and keep of the good work

[@grindelston5968]

343postums response was so aggressive , imagine using other people's suffering as an excuse for not doing the job you get very well paid to do. I wonder if they ever get asked questions about this kind of stuff in job interviews. The games industry is collapsing and I love it, I've gone back to Xbox 360, second hand great games are so cheap and plentiful and I know they'll work as soon as I insert the disk, no waiting 3 months for basic patch

[@LangeManGlenn]

I hate in CE Anniversary that many hitboxes don't line up with the 3D models. The trees, they're smaller in Anniversary graphics. So you line up your shot, pull the trigger, and suddenly you see wood particles. Switch graphics and realise "oh, the tree is actually wider".

[@ryanwitman8672]

Spoiler alert, TWELVE YEARS LATER it still is broken.