Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty has commented on the future of Halo amid Halo Infinite’s troubled start, layoffs at developer 343 Industries, and some of the top talent departing.
Matt Booty told Axios that he feels “confident in the leadership team” in place at 343 right now, but wouldn’t confirm if a Halo Infinite sequel or any new Halo games are now in development. That being said, Booty said the, “The team that got us here is probably not the same team that’s going to take us forward.”
343 was impacted by Microsoft’s wider layoffs earlier this year. Beyond that, top talent like Joseph Staten, Frank O’Connor, Bonnie Ross, David Ellis, and more have left the company.
Also in the interview, Booty singled out The Master Chief Collection as an example of a “quality” Halo game. He said people should know that the “core team” that helped turn that game around is now “doing a lot of the heavy lifting on Halo right now.”
Halo: The Master Chief Collection infamously launched in 2014 and was riddled with issues. 343 has steadily improved and refined the experience, and the game is undoubtedly in a much better state today with an active player population, new maps, and regular playlist refreshes.
Finally, Booty was asked if there was a new Halo game in development right now, but he declined to answer. However, he did say that 343 will continue to work on Halo going forward–which is no surprise–though Axios reported that he admitted “outside” studios may work with 343 as well.
This wouldn’t be a surprise, as 343 already works with a range of outside studios to develop Halo content alongside the internal team at Microsoft. But the bigger question might be if an outside studio could take the reins and develop its own Halo game. Booty also addressed the possibility of an Activision studio making a Halo game if Microsoft’s merger with Activision Blizzard goes through, and he said that probably wouldn’t be a top-down call from Microsoft. Instead, the development teams themselves would make that decision, Booty said.
Halo Infinite Season 4 launches on June 20 and, among other things, it introduces a new career rank progression system, the Infection mode, multiple new maps, and additional equipment.
Neither Halo Infinite nor the Halo franchise at all appeared at the Xbox Games Showcase, but Master Chief showed up at Ubisoft Forward the next day.
In other Xbox news, none of Microsoft’s own studios are making Xbox One games, having shifted to newer platforms.
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