The Halo Studios Situation is Crazy

343, or should I say Halo Studios, have just announced "Project Foundry" and their move to Unreal Engine 5 for the next Halo game. I'm not convinced they've learned any real lessons from their previous failures so vent my frustrations in this video.
Join me as we review the cutscenes, cinematics from recent Halo news, unreal engine 5 preview and Project Foundry.
#Halo #HaloStudios #CitizenX

[@ErrorCitizenX]

The average view duration on this video is 3 minutes. Before you comment something dumb, watch the whole thing - I probably talk about it.

[@LoremIpsum1919]

something dumb

[@Kreapypastoid]

Remember when they first announced Halo infinite and the first thing they showed was foliage and it was a GRAPHICS showcase. Yea not falling for that one again.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Hahaha yeah, and those spires they like to show off so much... Just like in this most recent video. We've seen it too many times.

[@Mcx_Spartan_Anubis]

@@ErrorCitizenX You guys need to remember that they had to make a new engine from scratch which caused it to work half the time, but it's Unreal Engine we're talking about, it's an engine that is proven to work so at least there's a way better chance of the CE Remake looking way better than Infinite

[@ErrorCitizenX]

@@Mcx_Spartan_Anubis Remakes wont save Halo though, they need to be able to make good new games. For that to happen, they need to understand where they went wrong previously with Co-op, Forge, Custom Games, Story, Armour Customisation... The list goes on. I'm not hearing any of that yet, and this announcement would've been a great place for it.

[@Mcx_Spartan_Anubis]

@@ErrorCitizenX It may not save Halo but it will give it a chance to prevail if Halo Studios play their cards right. Side note, stop liking your own comment

[@Valkyrae123]

@@Mcx_Spartan_Anubis yeah just like mcc and infinite helped halo prevail? lmao you halo fans constantly keep giving 343 chances then act shock when they dont deliver.

[@MLGxBXRxPRO]

Halo died the moment the original bungie crew wasnt involved. Hire back marty O'Donnell

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Marty is an absolute legend. He has some great interview out there with “The Act Man” giving lots of inside info

[@yeticonfettis]

Marty nowadays is obviously mentally unstable so I doubt he’s capable of doing anything cool anymore

[@keeganjamesmcneight8378]

What's sad is Halo wasn't the only thing that died then, Bungie died too :'(

[@spectrexr1]

Bungie didn't want to do halo anymore 🤷

[@Valkyrae123]

They wont ever hire marty, hes too Christian and conservative for the woke 343 devs

[@aono335]

They don’t need to do anything new gameplay wise. Halo Infinite’s gameplay was already great. They need to build on that and bring all the legacy features on Day One. The biggest problem with Infinite was Bad networking model and lack of content. That’s what killed the game. Hell they were back on their way to recovery when Season 5 launched. Tgey just didn’t have enough workforce or time to push those content heavy seasons on a regular schedule. Unreal Engine allows them to make and pump out content at a much faster rate. It also circumvent the Contract problems.

[@Adonis8685._.]

It's almost like they showed the graphics to let us see what halo artstyle could look like in unreal...

[@edzymods]

The one thing missing from all 343 games, is the community aspects present within Halo 3. Pregame lobbies, post game lobbies, service records, the ranking system, the custom games etc. etc. This is what they should be focusing on first snd foremost snd then build the game around that

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Dude, I couldn't agree more. You've hit the nail right on the head. Why can the players see if but the companies can't?

[@itsdw2323]

The contractor issue was 343. They kept outsourcing the work because they couldn’t do the work themselves. Microsoft allows an 18 month contractor use policy. This was entirely 343s incompetence.

[@keno4893]

"The game needs to be fun before its pretty"

[@GirthConfirmed]

Brother - while I get your pessimism, this wasn’t a trailer for Halo 7. This was a “we’re hiring” advertisement to developers across the industry and an update to fans that Halo will no longer be made in the BLAM! Engine. They mentioned they will be working on multiple games and all of them will be made in Unreal. Why would they mention a feature (you talked about social features) for a game that doesn’t exist yet? All they have is visuals right now as part of a tech demo for Halo in Unreal. 2) it is not “the same company with a new name.” When it’s comes to organizational development, the main changes in companies stem from changing leadership. And that is exactly what has happened here as almost every single executive lead at 343i is gone. This is no longer the 343i that made Halo 4-I, this is a new company With that said, I am not 100% sold that Halo Studios will make a great Halo game, but I am cautiously optimistic for the future however.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

I talked about a lot of this in the video so if you haven't watched it to the end yet, please do. Never once said it was Halo 7 or anything like it. A lot of the issues for the Halo franchise come from Mircosoft. One of the main reasons Bungie left Halo is because Microsoft were pushing them to do things Bungie thought would kill the game (See marty o'donnell's recent interview with Act Man for more details). So saying the 343 are changing their leadership means nothing. We as customers need to hear about how MICROSOFT are going to change their management of their in house teams moving forward. They need to give 343/Halo Studios the freedom to make their own game, they need to scrap the contractor hire/fire thing they've been doing for years. I never said they should talk about social features in this video. I simply used that as one of many examples. The problem here isn't that they didn't talk about social features, the problem is that they could've talked about anything in this video and they chose to talk about graphics. I don't need them to talk about what features a game that isn't made yet has or doesn't have, I need them to tell me what lessons they've learned, what they PLAN on doing if the next halo ever comes. Concrete things, not graphics that end up being scaled back before the game comes out. Sorry if I sound a little exhausted, but I had these same arguments with people when I was making videos pre-launch of Infinite warning of all the issues it was going to have, people told me I was wrong back then... Now they all complain about things I warned about 5 years ago. Even 343 now come out and admit BLAM!/Slipspace was a mistake. Should've just listened to me 5 years ago and saved themselves a lot of headache.

[@117johnpar]

The leadership is literally the same minus the 3 people who were fired 3 years ago after Infinite fell on its face. It absolutely is the same company renamed

[@GirthConfirmed]

@@117johnpar I can list you 8 leadership positions that have been changed…🤷🏽‍♂️ And now Pierre Hintz is in charge - who revived MCC to what it is now and has a completely different POV on Halo from Bonnie Ross and the crackpot team she assembled. Like I said tho - I don’t blame you for not accepting the new team regardless until they prove anything. I’m very cautious, but optimistic

[@GirthConfirmed]

@@ErrorCitizenX watched the entire video 🙌🏼 always support KZbinrs who still post Halo content. TBH - I agree with just about everything you’re saying (especially about the contractor life cycle issue - that was probably the biggest issue with Infinite and is a detriment to development of any game). I do think they could have at least mentioned that “hey, we are also looking to focus on more social features in future games as well” so you are right there. My point was that (1) it isn’t the same company. 8 of their top level leaders have departed the company and Pierre Hintz is now the top dawg, which I personally believe his vision will help steer the Halo ship differently from Bonnie Ross and her previous crackpot team. I am willing to give Halo Studios a fair chance…although I completely understand you and other people who won’t. Show me, don’t tell me. And (2) moving to Unreal addresses one of the biggest issues from Halo 5 and Infinite, which was how difficult it was for their team to create content on a consistent basis for any new game. BLAM!/Slipspace was built on spaghetti code and made the development process a nightmare for their developers (who are only there for 16 months due to MS bullshit policies). Now they “should” be able to support whatever game they release at a reasonable basis. Only time will tell though Great video though! Subscribed 🫡

[@ErrorCitizenX]

@@GirthConfirmed Appreciate ya!

[@MuffinManProductions3D]

Imagine spending years building a new engine, getting fired, then they decide to just scrap the engine and sell out to Epic games.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Really disappointing isn’t it. Especially when so many people said it was a mistake the second they announced it!

[@proxywolf2006]

​@@ErrorCitizenX thats ironic considering when it was a rumor people were saying it was for the best. And halo fans are so hypocritical because whenever a fan does something with halo on unreal everyone praises it but now that their doing unreal now everyone wants to say its a mistake....seriously?

[@ErrorCitizenX]

@@proxywolf2006 Nobody here is criticising the move to Unreal. The guy above is saying what a waste it is creating your own engine, ditching it, then going to unreal.

[@Average_Internet_User101]

As a 26 yo, I don't understand why they don't let Halo die as a franchise, it was fun let it go!🤷‍♂️

[@ErrorCitizenX]

I'd love to see a new Halo that captures the essence of what they had in the early 2000's, but I do think that if they aren't going to do it right, then why bother.

[@117johnpar]

Microsoft thinks it'll one day make them $600B

[@Viper31300]

@@ErrorCitizenXthat won’t happen with the current members of the studio

[@Valkyrae123]

@@ErrorCitizenXthey already stated they’re targeting a modern audience which means halo will never capture the essence it had in the early 2000s, i have no hope in any halo game thats being made by these incompetent devs

[@brainboycreations]

Bro the couch co-op campaign not being included killed it for me

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Yeah same here, especially after they literally promised it!

[@spectrexr1]

Bro that hurt cause my son was 14 then and we went thru all the halo campaigns together with the MCC . Couldn't do it with halo 5 and they said no more halo without split screen then it was cut I was like damn it Microsoft. Microsoft is trash . I blame them more than 343 . Management was and prob still is trash

[@bananaboy482]

They aren't talking about how they're practicing making environments with unreal because they're bragging about the graphics. The good graphics are secondary. They're showcasing that they're now using the Unreal workflow with Nanite and Lumen. That was the main problem with Infinite. The development workflow. Consumers see the graphics, but it's really an ad to attract developers.

[@ject9566]

Maybe I’m being dumb but I can’t really say infinite had “good” graphics to be honest the more I come back the more bland it looks. I feel like even halo 5 might look better in some things.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

I feel like it looks good enough. It's not inventive or blowing me away, but it looks as good as other modern day games in it's class. I play it maxed out at 1440p on PC though, so maybe there is a difference there.

[@bunkerdenelectrix]

Coop campaign still had multiple game breaking bugs when I played thru it 2024 with a friend pc to Xbox. Multiple times getting stuck in a ceiling or where a bridge didn’t spawn in or something stupid.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

I feel for you. Totally unacceptable considering the price tag and who is publishing it. Not to mention that in that big open world you had to stay close to each other or you’d get teleported! You couldn’t go and explorer separately - terrible.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

What do you think about the latest Halo announcement?

[@dexedge4645]

number company to ring company. Same thing just different name

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Totally agree. I’d love to be proved wrong by them creating a good Halo game, but I’ve lost faith.

[@canadiannomad540]

@@ErrorCitizenX sad to say it but I truly believe halo died with Reach

[@PowerfulRift]

The future of Halo is gay! (DEI)

[@dmonster007]

same story from 343 aka halo studio's again they show cased slip space engine just like this years ago and then halo infinite sucked after years of making the game they say it was 500 million budget but halo infinite did not feel like that budget but halo 3 less budget felt more like 500 million budget fact

[@OKzombieCUPCAKE]

It's about goofy 🤪 custom games that keeps the community together once they play through the campaign!

[@kyleshurmur-dg3kq]

Mate i remember halo on the original xbox i remember completing combat evolved and halo 2 woth my dad well when he wasnt banged up halo was mine and my dads game to play together well cant even do that as father and son any more mybold man dont really play games when he aint with me fuck halo these days me and my mrs go back to the 360 to play halo

[@ErrorCitizenX]

At least we'll always have the old games. Firing up the final mission on Halo 3 and playing it coop is always a good laugh

[@FURIAfdx]

Oh yeas the reflections in the piss are amazing! hahaha Halol died on 4. after that is just a brand name

[@ErrorCitizenX]

True. I would love to see it come back though, the Halo days were amazing. So many memories!

[@FURIAfdx]

@@ErrorCitizenX I know, its sad but we have to realise that will never come back to what it was. DEI Cancer entered on halo enterprise and has until the next release to live... Our only hope is a indie dev with a clue on what made halo great, making a halo clone... but sadly that space is ficsaded with 2d jumping and slash metroivaneas At least HALO 1 isnt online only and we can still play wiht the MOST OP PISTOL EVER CREATED!!! that was the shit, the the shit was almost a sniper rifle hahah good times

[@ErrorCitizenX]

@@FURIAfdx If you've never played Splitgate give that a try, it's multiplayer only but it really captures the essence of Halo multiplayer

[@FURIAfdx]

@@ErrorCitizenX I tryed and didnt felt that brahter XD having portals on a fps was kinda dumb for me, me it too ez xD I played a long time ago a f2p fps that was too close to halo, but was p2w, so its a no XD Imo the closest to hako was warhammer boltgun, but its kinda a halo if was hardcore... There no game with that mystic beach were u see that u are realy on a massive halo, I have that printscreen as wallpapper on my phone and pc XD

[@accessarea6]

Mate I've just subscribed cool

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Cheers Kev, really appreciate it!

[@U2Mii]

so much truth in this. wish the studio would listen

[@eve8709]

When they say visuals I think they mean art style. (343’s most decisive decision) and the two real problems were always the studio heads at 343 Frank O’Conner, Bonnie Ross, and Kiki wolf kill. And the busted blam engine. Well now all those people who tarnished halo are now gone. They’d share more information if they could. But this is what we’ve been waiting for!

[@ErrorCitizenX]

I hope so!

[@dylanhudec979]

Halo 4 feels more original than modern halo

[@ErrorCitizenX]

And that’s saying something lol

[@lucianorubio9129]

Perry the platypus?!?!

[@voidscreaming1012]

Halo died after halo 3

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Halo 3… You just had to be there man. What a game

[@adop_os]

this. when they added sprint to Reach it was game over. Reach would've been really good, too. The class's and armor abilities were dumb, too. Glad MCC is around.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

@@adop_os Good lord the armour abilities!

[@WingMaker2050]

stop. graphics matter for main stream media

[@ErrorCitizenX]

True, but it needs to be fun to play before it looks good. Look at how many triple A flops are out there in the last 3 years alone. Why? Because they look good, but aren’t fun to play.

[@WingMaker2050]

@@ErrorCitizenX yes gameplay is king. but to a lot of ppl Halo infinit had great gameplay, i also thought it is really good but the main thing ppl complain about was the graphics (craig) the draw distance and lack of content. they delayed halo bc of the graphics backlash. so when i hear ppl say graphics dont matter its like please stop fooling yourself. to ppl like us that care about gameplay its a no brainer but to the studios and mass gaming media graphics is on the top list

[@shredenvain7]

So are we gonna pretend that Halo infinte wasnt delayed because half the internet bitched about the graphics? See this is what happens when the internet dog piles on stupid crap and bitch that the devs dont listen to customers. As a result they have prioritized graphics.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

The internet bitched about the graphics because they were laughably bad. Like, behind other comparable games at the time. Once they brought it up to scratch it was fine. The problem is prioritising graphics over gameplay. These conversations require the ability to talk with context and nuance.

[@shredenvain7]

@@ErrorCitizenX I didn't say they weren't sub par but what tends to happen when people over complain (especially those that never had any intention of playing Halo Infinite) is studios over correct and make drastic changes like this. The problem that Halo has as well as Xbox as a whole is they face a major amount of scrutiny from people that aren't their customers and never have any intention of being their customers. While the other companies are allowed to do whatever anti consumer shit they want with a minority of people ever complaining about it.

[@kenethernandez6246]

​@shredenvain7 Deserved scrutiny btw. People didn't start complaining about Xbox and halo over night. This came as a result of countless f-ups spanning years and years and now people have rightfully lost trust in halo and xbox and they haven't shown any results that warrant giving them the benefit of the doubt. And now people are still complaining because despite the rebrand they still have people on the team like their chief of staff, executive producer and COO with more focus on diversity and inclusion than gaming. Nobody wants to go to a top executive's account and see pronouns and rainbow flags as soon as you enter but that's what we have as part of the studio. Clearly they got the right people for the job over there. That's just part of the problem but we'll see if they can deliver a feature complete game on time and not break their promises as always.

[@adrazz_gaming]

Moving to a better engine is now a bad thing😅😅😅. Halo infinite was not a bad game. The game died because of a lack of contents. With unreal engine, they will be able to put out contents much more quickly compared to splipspace🤦🏽‍♂️

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Damn bro I never said once that moving to a new engine is a bad thing. You guys love inventing fake shit. In fact, I said that I told them to do this 5 years ago. I told them slipspace was bad 5 years ago. I said that coming out here and showcasing the graphics doesn't mean shit. For Halo to be good again they need to come out and say we've learned X, Y, Z lessons from the previous games. They haven't said that.

[@OKzombieCUPCAKE]

What about an actual build your own drivable vehicle in forge! Build tractors, semi trucks, busses, tanks, warthogs, jeeps RV campers, fire trucks, trains, boats, hover craft, and trains with all sorts of box cars!

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Honestly that would be interesting, not sure how I feel about it (I like the classic vehicles) but I’d love to see that idea explored!

[@OKzombieCUPCAKE]

@@ErrorCitizenX I build a lot of stuff that isn't Halo related in the forge, which makes things interesting 🤔

[@alexcastillo4741]

Another content creator wailing about the death of halo. Just let the franchise go already

[@ErrorCitizenX]

If I’m beating a dead horse, then what does that make you-its devoted audience? 🐴

[@kodymcgrath8002]

I’m by no means a 343 fanboy or anything but I don’t get why some people are responding so poorly. I’m more neutral because the leadership team is new. There are lower level devs still there but at the end of the day they do the grunt work. The people who come up with ideas and approve things are all completely different. On top of that unreal engine allows for a much higher output of content than the blam engine which was another major problem with the franchise. Any qualified dev should already be familiar with unreal. They also stated that the next halo game will be “ready when it’s ready” which is a good sign that they aren’t gonna rush it and have a terrible launch. I think the reason they showcased the graphics even though it’s the last of peoples concerns is Because it is the only concrete positive thing they have to say since they literally just went through the layoff/hiring process and rebranding. Considering the last interesting thing that happened with the halo games was like the multiplayer stat line they cut after it finally got good like 2 years ago now. So it’s just good to hear something positive

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Part of the problem is people are saying "new leadership is good!" without knowing anything about the new leadership. One of the people in their new leadership was completely against Unreal 5. So it's not quite as much change as some of the fans would have you believe...

[@kodymcgrath8002]

@@ErrorCitizenX I have heard that the head of the studio was against unreal which is disappointing, but I hope now that they have made the switch he understands that it was ultimately the right call and if they take their time to replicate the feel of the game. Also, love the passion in this video. I’ll literally go on for like 30 minutes at a time just ranting about how amazing halo was and the tragic state it’s in to my wife at least once a week lol

[@ErrorCitizenX]

@@kodymcgrath8002 Hahaha I'm right there with you. It shows how good Halo used to be when we still rant and rave about it all these years later!

[@proxywolf2006]

Dude, its them announcing their moving onto a new engine and a name change, what gameplay are they gonna show you for unreal when they just moved to it, likely wont be much different than infinites if anything. And another thing, you tried to name games from twotch that "listened" to their communities, aint no way you judged that based on them being on twitch cause not all you named respect their communities, and why are you talking about call of duty 4 when thats not the one your looking at on twitch thats warzone which is the battle royale, if your gonna try to compare atleast know whoch ones your talking about

[@ErrorCitizenX]

I don't want them to "show" me any gameplay, I want them to TELL me they understand what went wrong previously and they're planning on doing X, Y and Z to fix it. I don't need concrete game mechanics I just need them to say "We understand social aspects of the game are huge, we'll make that a focus. We understand custom games are huge, we'll make that a focus. We understand coop is huge, we'll make that a focus". But no. They came on and talked and showed us graphics. My point about Call of Duty 4 was that it was a franchise that was out at the same time as Halo. Call of Duty has evolved and kept up with the times and is still going strong - Halo is not. These conversations require the people involved to use one or two brain cells, so don't worry, I understand why you struggle to understand nuance and context.

[@proxywolf2006]

@@ErrorCitizenX so you want them to tell you what you want to hear ahead of development which to me sounds like making promises that they may or may not keep, they acknowledged the desire of coop in the past and look how that turned out, something which launching half assed and with their circumstance with that led to broken promises for us. We don't need them telling us years ahead of time that they understand only for them to down the line screw us over, and I don't want satisfaction based on words. I'd rather wait till they have stuff to actually show that can speak for it's words rather then just hear it from them because I want to hear it. With them moving to unreal all they literally have to show for itself is graphics which are just renders and not the game because....it's still in development so nothing can be shown or proven of promise. I don't need a "what their planning" I need thembto look at the years of criticisms both good and bad of what they've done, fix it and show us what they fixed, not tell us what there going to fix because we've dine this dance before. And you say cod evolved and kept up with time, but A. They did that how...by chasing trends something in which we didn't want halo todo in which btw cod lost its identity trying to become fortnite with its collaborations but i guess thats "keeping up with time" and B. Drying out their own ideas. You acknowledged that cod kept itself going but you don't acknowledged it's history of downfalls aswell with its audience in which the only reason why cod stays alive truly is because 1 they get a new game every year because it's never one studio doing it 2 it's the upmost casual fps compared to it's competition which it's always been and 3 every set of years there's always a new gen of kids finding there way to play cod. It's a graphical showcase of unreal for there transition, so what? You want your criticisms to be acknowledged and delivered, see it to believe it because what happens if they tell you they understand the social aspects ahead of time and they fail to deliver that?

[@ErrorCitizenX]

@@proxywolf2006 I want them to tell me that after 3 failed games in a row that they've learned important lessons, yes. At the end of the day it doesn't matter what engine they use because if the core of Halo isn't there, it wont do well just like the past three games.

[@arivera267]

Too many trolls Too many Xbox haters.... Thank you Xbox Keep giving us new content New games Thank you

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Wanting a good Halo game makes you an Xbox hater? Damn.

[@slate8409]

Man, I'm getting really tired of seeing videos of this nature since the restructure. Let's be clear. Yes, most of these people that everyone is suddenly complaining about have been at 343 for the last two years at minimum. That said, they were also the ground level devs or the team managers, not the laughably incompetent top level management doing their best to emulate Konami's failure with Metal Gear Solid 5's development cycle. I don't care what their personal politics are. Why? Because not once to my memory have we really seen any cases of identity politics or the culture war seeping into the Halo games and books in all the years these people have been at the studio. Hell, I'd argue Karen Traviss did more damage to the setting and many people still love those books. These people are entitled to their personal beliefs and I won't begrudge them that simply for the fact they've remained professional and not allowed it to color their work, which is more than I can say for most of the game industry these days. Not once has 343 called their fanbase "toxic" or gone out of their way to belittle us for our opinions in the way many others do these days. The closest we ever got to that was the Halo television show which even 343's leadership was quick to immediately disavow as a separate timeline and not their work. Hollywood being Hollywood with Paramount having creative control and the showrunners actively bragging about ignoring the games/books and disregarding the lore teams 343 sent to help with the scriptwriting process because they wanted to "do something different". For the time being we wait and see what happens. Project Foundry is a big deal if you understand the nightmare that was Infinite and 5's counterproductive development cycles and the choices made at the top levels of management. It's a huge sign that they're moving back to a healthy and productive workflow the likes of which we haven't seen since Bungie's era, with similar "hackathons" where they prototyped ideas actively shut down by the last leadership team to focus on crunch. These new people in leadership now are the same people who wanted to do Halo Wars 3, a Helldivers style ODST game years before Arrowhead and half a dozen other really good ideas that all got shut down by the last management team and they're the ones running the show now. The shift to Unreal, while regrettable, is a HUGE deal when you know about the issues that Blamite/Slipspace engine suffered from - which I should point out were the exact same problems hamstringing Destiny's development for years as it was derived from Reach's iteration of Blamite with the Tiger engine which required them to do a similar overhaul and engine shift halfway through Destiny 2’s life cycle. You say they haven’t identified the problems within the company. Having closely paid attention to everything coming out about their work flow since Halo 4 and watching other fuck ups elsewhere in the industry? I respectfully disagree. Let's see where the studio goes.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Your first two paragraphs talk about identity politics and culture wars... Things I didn't once mention in this video. Not once. Are you okay sir? Like I said to someone else, they haven't once publicly addressed hiring contractors and then letting them go at the end of the contract, losing all the expertise that person brought to the team, then bringing in another contractor who needs months to learn the codebase before becoming a productive member of the team. You talk about having understood the workflow in the past Halo games and yet don't mention this point anywhere, and it's one of the most crucial ones. I made videos before Infinite came out talking about how they should not be going forward with Blamite/Slipspace, so trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I called this years ago.

[@slate8409]

@@ErrorCitizenX Honestly was more pre-empting that in comments since I’ve seen them everywhere. But as for the workflow, shifting to Unreal is a huge part of that. Part of the issue is that the Blam/Slipspace engine is so heavily modified and out of date that it took anywhere between six to eight months to train someone on that, even if we ignore the optimization issues that it’s cousin in Destiny’s Tiger engine (derived from Reach’s iteration of Blam) also suffered from. Even assuming they’re sticking to contract workers - which Microsoft’s shift in hiring policies in the last eight to twelve months seems to suggest otherwise - that meant they’d get someone for eighteen months, spend a third of that time training them, more time spent catching up on what their predecessors did and that would leave a little under a year to work before repeating the cycle. With Unreal? The vast majority of the industry knows it. Someone comes in, takes a few weeks to familiarize themselves with the workflow and project. You’re gaining six to eight months of work back rather than digging yourself out of a hole. More to the point, this was further exacerbated by 343’s prior leadership doing more or less exactly what Konami had with Kojima’s people during the development of MGS5. Not as maliciously intended but just as bad with the studio broken up into isolated cells that were competing rather than collaborating, not to mention the issue of poorly mismanaged resources. Virtually all of the people responsible for fucking up the workflow, rejecting the side projects they’re prototyping with Project Foundry again and mismanaging the studio at an executive level are long gone, and the ones left are the people with a track record of fixing their screw ups between the post-launch overhaul of the Master Chief Collection and Infinite’s post launch support. If reports are to be believed we only got a fraction of what they intended for the game at launch were it not for executive meddling - executives which are no longer at the company. Give them space, let them cook. Judge after we see what they put out.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

@@slate8409 I’m sorry dude but “give them space, let them cook” doesn’t work anymore. I’ve given them Spartan Ops, Spartan Strike, Halo Wars 2, The Master Chief Collection, Halo 4, Halo 5, Halo Infinite... they screwed them ALL up. All of them! It’s time for the narrative to shift from “trust them” to “impress me”. They’ve had their chances, they blew them. Time for them to impress the fans and not have the fans “let them cook”. We let them cook for 7 games. It got us nowhere. And “but this time will be different!” Just falls a bit short. I want a good Halo game, but I’m waiting cautiously.

[@slate8409]

@@ErrorCitizenX … how was Halo Wars 2 a failure? Sorry, but legitimately asking. If anything I would’ve called that a win. Also, that was Creative Assembly, licensed out through 343 so that’s not really here nor there. And as of right now? There’s a reason for the rebranding. None of those projects really have much relevance to the people at the studio now save the last, and that’s solely because the ground level devs worked on it. More to the point this restructure and Project Foundry isn’t the sort of thing that happens overnight, that tells us where dev resources have gone over the last few months rather than Infinite. The executives and writers that gave us all of those are gone. Halo 5’e writers were VERY publicly “let go” afterwards, and the executives that mismanaged the Konami style development of 5 and Infinite were all fired, sacked or “kicked upstairs” a year ago. The only people left at the company are the ground level devs who were promoted upwards within the company and new faces, with the new leadership team largely made up of Pierre’s people who were the ones responsible for fixing the MCC with the post launch overhaul and seasons. I’m not saying to give them space on blind faith. They’re almost entirely the people who’ve had a track record on actually delivering their promises. Absolutely hold onto some caution but Project Foundry is a huge sign that internal company culture is shifting and changing since it was exactly the sort of company practice the last leadership explicitly shut down because they didn’t understand the development process. Working on “multiple game projects” would’ve been an unthinkable pipe dream under the horribly incompetent management of the last 343 leadership team. That and the targeted shift to Unreal is telling me the people in charge now aren’t some C-suite executives but devs who actually had their feet down in the trenches, or at the very least they’ve gained significant amount of influence with leadership following the restructure - which is a GOOD thing.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

@@slate8409 I just think the idea people have that having new people join the team is going to fix all the issues is misguided and once again means taking Microsoft AND 343/Halo Studios at their word, which is worth nothing at this point. It doesn't matter who is in leadership positions at 343/Halo Studios, eventually, Microsoft is in charge and they have to do what their corporate overlords say. This is an issue that made Bungie leave after Halo 3 and was STILL affecting the Halo games during Infinite - This won't change with new 343 leadership. As for Halo Wars 2... It was received with a mixed reception. Certainly not the level of Halo 5 or Infinite, but mixed. "Frequent bugs are something I didn’t expect from a Halo game." "Only a couple of mission designs think outside the box." "Strange issues make it feel unpolished next to its PC RTS peers." It was also dubbed "Failo Wars" I enjoyed parts of it but like I said, mixed reception.

[@randomxgen6167]

All this focus on graphics is pointless. Let's look at Halo Infinite's launch, for example. Halo Infinite's poor impression wasn't that it failed to reach some graphical excellence. It was that someone in that company thought that Craig was an acceptable product to sell to consumers, and backlash forced them to push the release back like two years. It's tangentially related to art, but also hilariously missing the key issue because it's not an art issue. I think the most telling statement of the Halo Studios presentation was what the studio head said near the end, where Halo Infinite was the last remnant of how they used to do halo or something. As though halo infinite's entire point wasn't to make a live service completely different from how other halo games used to work. Leadership at that company continues to have no idea what it's talking about, and replacing 343 with 343-in-a-fake-mustache won't suddenly fix the problem.

[@ErrorCitizenX]

Completely agree. If they came out and talked about everything they got wrong with Infinite, and what they're going to do to change that moving forward I'd be more likely to listen to them. But instead, they've sacrificed their incompetent leadership and acted as if that will wash all the problems away. Meanwhile, the devs don't seem to understand what makes Halo... Halo.

[@cleny217]

Cant wait for halo to be on Unreal engine 5 so it can look and feel like all other games!

[@ErrorCitizenX]

It'll certainly help! I just hope they actually sort out the core of the issues as well.

[@soundsurgen3293]

The word on the street is... HALO STUDIOS IS ALL ABOUT D.E.I. !!! SO I'M VERY SKEPTICAL & APPREHENSIVE ON THIS NEW STRUCTURING! So I know 4 a fact that someone at 343 STUDIOS never wanted to switch over to UNREAL ENGINE;LET ALONE U.E. 5.5 - 5.X SO WHO KNOWS IF HALO CAN BE SAVED! BUT LIKE GEORGE LUCAS STAR WARS - " I'VE GOT A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS..."

[@adrianlugo1130]

I totally agree with you, people have too much copium lately 🥲. The only ones who can actually do a great halo game are the fans itself or maybe even the old Bungie 343 developers without Microsoft. Microsoft decisions snd greed have ultimately destroyed halo