Xbox Games Studio head Matt Booty has clarified the status of Halo after a few months of speculation.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Matt explained that 343 Industries is still in charge of the Halo franchise as a whole. Their leadership at Microsoft and even Xbox Game Studios is going to continue to give them independence to decide on where to take that franchise moving forward.
Matt then revealed that other studios could make Halo games in the future. When Matt was asked if that meant, for example, if Call of Duty studios like Infinity Ward could make a Halo game, this is what he had to say:
“If something like that were to happen, it would have to come from the studios. It’s unlikely that we would come in and dictate that from the top.”
It’s interesting in light of what we have heard about Halo from insiders for months, but also from what we now know about Microsoft Game Studios and Xbox themselves.
As we had reported earlier this year, 343 Industries had to address rumors of issues within the studio, by reaffirming that they continue to be the main studio for the Halo franchise. It is a matter of public knowledge that several veterans in the studio have left within the past few months following Halo Infinite’s release.
Much of the speculation has surrounded what is mainly bad management within the company, leading to missed goals and unsatisfactory content in the case of Halo Infinite.
However, we now know there is another layer of mismanagement that happens under Xbox, which occurs because they give their studios too much freedom.
In the case of Redfall, thanks to an insider report, we now know that Arkane Austin’s own developers hoped that Microsoft would intervene and cancel the game that their lead studio Bethesda wanted to pursue. When that didn’t happen, Arkane saw a large number of resignations, to the degree that a considerably smaller studio was left to finish Redfall to the best of their ability.
Microsoft may still be riding off a few days of good PR thanks to their strong showing following their successful Xbox Games Showcase for this E3 Week. However, they should also be well aware that fans are still monitoring them with close eyes, particularly when it comes to Halo.
Here’s hoping Microsoft understands that they do have to intervene sometimes when their studios are making mistakes themselves. It’s what could make the difference in seeing better Halo games and content in the future.
