We all know that the gaming industry is struggling, but some developers are suffering more than others right now. One such company was the formerly named 343 Industries, which was recently rebranded as “Halo Studios” in an attempt to massage gamers’ fears about what was coming next in the franchise and how the company was “righting the ship” to make things better. To try and show their commitment to this statement, they unleashed a teaser trailer of Master Chief within Unreal Engine 5, highlighting the “visual quality” of what was to come in the new studio. While this amused some, one of the former employees of 343 Industries was most definitely not.
As noted by Tech4Gamers, animator Will Waltz, who worked for 343 Industries on the FPS franchise for about 13 years, went onto LinkedIn to make a post warning people to NOT join Halo Studios. Why would he do that? He said that despite being one of the top animators in the industry, the leadership of the team was cancer. Leadership who is still at the company despite the name change, for the record.
He stated it was “creatively limiting” to work there and that the leadership was a full-on “cancer” to the group. To be fair, Waltz didn’t say that EVERYONE at the company was bad, as there were people, like him, who loved this franchise and wanted to make great games. It was just that the people at the top weren’t allowing him and others to do that. Waltz even went on to say that it was “un-fun” to work there, and he’s willing to take PMs from others to help guide them on what to do instead of working with them.
While this may sound like “sour grapes,” it should be noted that he worked at 343 Industries for over a decade on multiple titles, so he would know what the “inner workings” of the place are. Plus, there were NUMEROUS reports about how 343 Industries was doing terrible business practices to try and get things done, only to have it blow up in their faces. For example, they were infamous for not having a ton of permanent staff and instead only having contract workers, which led to delays in development as there was no cohesion or chemistry in the group.
Plus, after the announcement of Halo Studios, many people, like Waltz, saw this as them trying to “put a new coat of paint” on a broken-down item and saying it’s new.
