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Halo Studios

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Halo Studios
Formerly343 Industries (2007–2024)
Company typeDivision
IndustryVideo games
Founded2007; 17 years ago (2007)
FounderBonnie Ross
Headquarters
Redmond, Washington
,
US
Key people
Pierre Hintze (studio head)
ProductsHalo series
ParentXbox Game Studios
WebsiteOfficial website

Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the Halo series of military science fiction games, originally created and produced by Bungie, and is the developer of the Slipspace Engine. Originally named after the Halo character 343 Guilty Spark, the studio was created by Microsoft Game Studios in 2007 due to the departure of Bungie after the release of Halo 3.

After co-developing downloadable content for Halo: Reach, Bungie's final Halo game, 343 Industries released Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Halo 4, the latter starting the studio's "Reclaimer Saga" of the mainline games.

Formation

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Bungie was a video game developer working on their next project when they were acquired by Microsoft in 2000. Their in-development game, Halo: Combat Evolved, turned into a launch title for Microsoft's Xbox console. Bungie and Microsoft's cultures never meshed, and after the release of Halo 2 Bungie began renegotiating for better profit sharing for their next game, Halo 3. These discussions led to Bungie announcing its independence from Microsoft in 2007. While Bungie was still contracted to deliver new Halo games, the rights to the franchise remained with Microsoft.[1][2][3][4] Xbox general manager Bonnie Ross recalled that her colleagues felt Halo was a waning property and looked at contracting an outside company to produce new games;[5][6]: 21:45–23:00  the series's deep backstory and universe appealed to Ross, and she argued for a different approach.[6]: 26:15–27:05  Ross' pitch won over Microsoft Game Studios general manager Shane Kim, and she was put in charge of a new internal Halo studio, 343 Industries, named after the Halo character 343 Guilty Spark.[3][7][8][9][10]

343 Industries started with a staff of roughly a dozen people in late 2007.[6]: 28:22  Bungie staffer Frank O'Connor assisted in the transition, and quit Bungie to serve as 343 Industries' franchise director.[5][1] Ross' vision for Halo also impressed Microsoft art director Kiki Wolfkill, who joined the team as a studio head.[1] During the transition, 343 Industries worked with the company Starlight Runner to interview Bungie staff and compile a centralized story bible for the universe. 343 Industries also worked with Bungie on their last Halo projects, Halo 3: ODST (2009) and Reach (2010).[6]: 30:50 [11][12][failed verification]

Development

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Former logo to 343 Industries.

In July 2009, it was announced that 343 Industries was working on a seven-part Halo anime series called Halo Legends.[13] Later that year the studio created Halo Waypoint, a downloadable application that tracks a user's Halo accomplishments.[14] 343 Industries also increased staff for Halo development, recruiting staff from the defunct Pandemic Studios.[15] 343 Industries also collaborated with Certain Affinity on Halo: Reach's second and third map packs. The company was responsible for the remastered version of Halo: Combat Evolved, titled Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, which was released on November 15, 2011, to celebrate the 10th year since the release of the first franchise installment on November 15, 2001.

Following Bungie's completion of their last Halo title, Halo: Reach, 343 Industries was eventually given complete control of the Halo franchise including servers and data on March 31, 2012. The studio's development of Halo 4, which began in 2009, was completed in September.[16] It was released on November 6, 2012, as the first title of a new Halo Reclaimer Trilogy which will include at least two more installments over the years. At E3 2013, Microsoft and 343 Industries announced the next "Halo" installment set for release on the Xbox One. Shortly after the announcement, the Reclaimer Trilogy was confirmed by Microsoft Studios corporate vice-president Phil Spencer to be expanded into a Reclaimer Saga.[17] The following year at E3 2014, the official title was revealed as "Halo 5: Guardians" along with plans for its release on October 27, 2015. Microsoft, in a contract with Mega Bloks, is in conjunction with 343 Industries to manufacture a new line of toys and other memorabilia for the upcoming Halo saga.[18] Halo 5: Guardians was released on October 27, 2015, with semi-exclusive content to those who purchased select Mega Bloks sets. 343 Industries has since released free monthly content updates since Halo 5's launch.

At E3 2018, Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries announced the next Halo game, titled Halo Infinite, which was originally scheduled to launch in holiday 2020 for Xbox One and Windows PCs, in addition to being a launch title for the next Xbox console, the Xbox Series X.[19] However, the game was delayed to release in 2021, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the 343 staff to switch to remote work.[20] Infinite was the first game to be developed using 343's in-house Slipspace Engine.[21]

After Infinite's release, 343 Industries supported the game via updates. On September 12, 2022, Bonnie Ross announced she would step down as studio head. Following her departure, her responsibilities were split into three positions. Pierre Hintze took over as studio head, Bryan Koski became GM of the franchise and Elizabeth Van Wyck took over business and operations.[22] Amid wider layoffs in the tech industry and Microsoft, 343 Industries was heavily affected,[23] and Bloomberg News reported the studio would be making large changes to its development structure going forward.[24]

In October 2024, 343 Industries announced a rebrand as Halo Studios, amid a shift to Unreal Engine 5 for future project development, moving away from their in-house Slipspace Engine.[25]

Games developed

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Year Game Platform(s) Notes
2011 Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary[26] Xbox 360 Collaboration with Saber Interactive
2012 Halo 4[27] Collaboration with Certain Affinity
2013 Halo: Spartan Assault[28] iOS, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox 360, Xbox One Collaboration with Vanguard Games
2014 Halo: The Master Chief Collection[29] Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X/S Includes Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2 Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and Halo 4
2015 Halo: Spartan Strike[30] iOS, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone Collaboration with Vanguard Games
2015 Halo 5: Guardians[31] Xbox One Halo 5: Forge was released on Microsoft Windows
2016 Halo Wars: Definitive Edition Microsoft Windows, Xbox One Collaboration with Behaviour Interactive
2017 Halo Wars 2 Collaboration with Creative Assembly
Halo Recruit Microsoft Windows Collaboration with Endeavor One
2018 Halo: Fireteam Raven Arcade Collaboration with Play Mechanix and Endeavor One
2021 Halo Infinite[32] Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S Collaboration with SkyBox Labs, Sperasoft, The Coalition and Certain Affinity[33][34][35][36]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Haske, Steven (May 30, 2017). "The Complete, Untold History of Halo". Vice. Vice Media. Archived from the original on March 15, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
  2. ^ "Why the makers of Halo are splitting from Microsoft". Fortune. Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Milian, Mark (May 11, 2011). "Halo' and creators move on after divorce". CNN. Archived from the original on January 8, 2014. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  4. ^ Romano, Benjamin (October 6, 2007). "Microsoft, "Halo" maker Bungie split". Business / Technology. The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
  5. ^ a b Brustein, Joshua (October 22, 2015). "Can the Woman Behind Halo 5 Save the Xbox?". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on October 23, 2015. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d McCaffrey, Ryan (February 26, 2019). "How Bonnie Ross Is Shaping the Future of Halo - IGN Unfiltered #39". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on April 12, 2021. Retrieved April 12, 2021.
  7. ^ Marie, Meagan (December 4, 2018). "Bonnie Ross". Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play. Prima Games. pp. 94–95. ISBN 978-0-744-01993-3.
  8. ^ Smith, Edward (2016). "Studio Profile: 343 Industries". Edge. No. 300. Future Publishing. pp. 94–97.
  9. ^ Thorsen, Tor (July 20, 2009). "Microsoft names internal Halo label?". Archived from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
  10. ^ Vore, Bryan (November 2011). "Taking Over 'Halo'". Game Informer. Vol. 11, no. 223. pp. 28–33. ISSN 1067-6392.
  11. ^ Smith, Kevin (December 5, 2011). "Talking with the man who assembled the 'Halo Bible' for Microsoft". Official Xbox Magazine. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012.
  12. ^ Reilly, Jim (April 29, 2010). "Halo: Reach Will Be Bungie's Last Halo Game". IGN. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  13. ^ Norris, Erik (July 23, 2009). "Halo Anime In The Works". Archived from the original on June 17, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  14. ^ McWhertor, Michael (July 25, 2009). "Comic-Con 09". kotaku.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2009. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  15. ^ "Microsoft hires ex-Pandemic members for new Halo game". gamer.blorge.com. November 21, 2010. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  16. ^ Mallory, Jordan (March 29, 2013). "What went wrong with Halo 4's Prometheans". Engadget. AOL. Archived from the original on April 2, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  17. ^ "Reclaimer Saga". IGN. June 21, 2013. Archived from the original on June 23, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
  18. ^ "Mega Brands and Microsoft Game Studios Renew Global Licensing Partnership". Electronics Business Journal. June 2011. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  19. ^ "'Halo Infinite' arrives holiday 2020 alongside the new Xbox". Engadget. June 9, 2019. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  20. ^ "Halo Infinite Development Update". Halo Waypoint. August 11, 2020. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
  21. ^ "Halo Infinite – Our Journey Begins". Halo Waypoint. June 10, 2018. Archived from the original on June 10, 2018. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
  22. ^ Carpenter, Nicole (September 12, 2022). "Halo boss Bonnie Ross steps down as head of 343 Industries". Polygon. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
  23. ^ Winslow, Levi (January 18, 2023). "Microsoft Slashes 10K Jobs, Including At Xbox And Halo Studios". Kotaku. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  24. ^ Schrier, Jason (January 31, 2023). "Microsoft Studio Behind Halo Faces a Reboot on Years of Turmoil". Bloomberg News. Retrieved January 31, 2023.
  25. ^ Bailey, Kat (October 6, 2024). "Future Halo Games Moving to Unreal Engine 5 as 343 Industries Rebrands, 'Multiple Projects' in Development". IGN. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  26. ^ "Microsoft leaks details about next Halo game". VentureBeat. June 6, 2011. Archived from the original on June 8, 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  27. ^ "Microsoft E3 landing page leaks Kinect upgrades, Halo 4 news". Digital Trends. June 6, 2011. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  28. ^ "Halo: Spartan Assault Halo Official Site". Archived from the original on June 8, 2013. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  29. ^ "Halo the Master Chief Collection". June 9, 2014. Archived from the original on June 10, 2014. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
  30. ^ "Halo: Spartan Strike Comes to Microsoft Windows Devices and Steam this December". Xbox Wire. Microsoft. October 16, 2014. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  31. ^ "The Halo Journey". May 16, 2014. Archived from the original on May 16, 2014. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
  32. ^ "Halo 6 Already In the Works". CINEMABLEND. September 27, 2015. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
  33. ^ Makuch, Eddie (July 27, 2018). "Halo Infinite Adds A Co-Developer". GameSpot. Archived from the original on July 27, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  34. ^ "Sperasoft Collaborates with 343 Industries on Halo Infinite Development". Sperasoft. August 4, 2020. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  35. ^ "Halo Infinite Received Help From Gears Studio, The Coalition". Game Informer. February 24, 2021. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  36. ^ "Certain Affinity Reveals Ongoing Partnership with 343 Industries on Halo Infinite". Certain Affinity. August 26, 2020. Archived from the original on August 27, 2020. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
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