343 Industries had an interesting message at the end of their recent Halo Infinite January Update, which was the livestream the studio held shortly after last week’s Xbox Developer Direct.
Community director Brian Jarrard, who was one of the hosts of the livestream, shared this message at the outro:
“From us in the studio, it’s going to be a very exciting year for Halo. We are off to an exciting start.
We have a dedicated team working on supporting Halo Infinite, and continuing to deliver going forward. But also, yes, we have additional teams now, accelerating towards the future, working on brand new projects.
So I just want to tantalize you with that. There are a lot of things cooking here. We could not be more excited. As part of that, I actually want to give a shoutout. We are actually growing the team right now.
So, if you’re passionate about Halo, if you’ve got skills and you’re interested, please keep an eye on the Microsoft career site.
Because we are growing and we have a lot of exciting things in the works for the future.”
There had been a specter revolving around the Halo franchise and its future since its studio went through a spate of layoffs a few years ago. The rumors and speculation that had been revolving around game journalists, writers, and influencers, is that Halo Infinite was only the latest project to suffer from mismanagement, leading to those layoffs and resignations.
It’s important to remember that those layoffs stretched out for a matter of months, while speculation revolved around them. They also clearly happened and ended before the ongoing current wave of layoffs being felt across the industry.
So, with this announcement, it sounds like 343 Industries has turned around a new leaf. It may be the case, as we know that Halo Infinite has itself gone around to winning back a significant number of players back to the point that they are an active user base, receiving regular updates again.
Some gamers may question just how healthy the game is, since Halo Infinite’s user base didn’t reach critical mass. But it’s definitely in a better place now that Overwatch and Destiny 2 is now.
To add to that, the news that 343 is planning some new projects, to the point that they will soon be hiring again, is a clear show of confidence from the studio. Maybe we really won’t be waiting that long for new Halo games after all.
