343 Industries and Microsoft Game Studios are still in the hunt for new talent to help work with Halo 5. A new job posting has come up for a senior multiplayer designer.
The senior designer will be in charge of implementing and executing features within the competitive multiplayer experience. This includes aspects of multiplayer such as game modes, map feedback, moment-to-moment gameplay balancing, and cross-team collaboration.
Of course, online multiplayer is a lynchpin of the Halo series. The reason this is news is Bungie has dropped out of the series, and 343 needs help in this regard.
This isn’t a job opening for new talent either. They need a designer with the experience to coordinate development of elements that we take for granted. This includes balancing and tuning the competitive experience, as well as coming up with all new Halo multiplayer game modes. It could not possibly get any clearer than this statement: “…you will help shape the future of the Halo franchise”.
It can be taken as an encouraging sign, that Microsoft is dedicated to making the next Halo game the best that it can be. It can also be interpreted as a sign that 343 is struggling with certain aspects of development, and the openings are telltale signs of stalled work on the game. We know 343 has been hiring and not laying off, so the project scope may just be getting bigger and bigger.
Halo 5 was officially announced just a little less than a year ago, with a hype E3 trailer, so really, it’s still relatively early in development. It would encouraging if Microsoft shared teasers come this June, if not sooner. We will keep you up to date with Halo 5 news as it happens.