UPDATED: A Halo Infinite Survey From Microsoft Feels An Awful Lot Like It’s Throwing 343 Industries Under The Bus

The survey comes after layoffs at the developer.

QuintLyn Bowers
By QuintLyn Bowers, News Editor Posted:
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Halo Infinite Survey

Halo Infinite has always been a bit of a mixed bag for players. The game has never exactly been hated, but it’s had issues. Now, it seems like Microsoft might be over those issues, and perhaps over the game’s developer 343 Industries as well – at least according to a survey shared by Rebs Gaming on his Twitter account. This comes despite 343 saying otherwise and Phil Spencer expressing faith in the company in an IGN interview saying, "Halo will remain critically important to what Xbox is doing, and 343 is critically important to the success of Halo."

A few tweets share screenshots from survey questions that Microsoft sent out to members of the Xbox Research program, a survey Magicman received himself, too. These surveys are common practice, so it’s not surprising that it exists, but folks were a bit surprised by the tone of the questions asked.

The first question jumps right to the heart of the matter, asking simply, “Are you done playing Halo Infinite?” This question was accompanied by others about players' faith in 343 Industries. It asked whether or not players believe 343 listens to them and makes changes based on their feedback, whether players can trust roadmaps put out by the company, and whether or not they’re doing a good job of communicating.

It also asked what modes from older Halo games Infinite players would like to see added, so maybe there’s a bit of hope.

UPDATE 1/31/2023: According to a new report from Jason Schreier over at Bloomberg (paywall), Halo and 343 do, in fact, have a rocky road ahead of them them. We knew layoffs hit 343 pretty hard but Jason reports those layoffs hit at least 90 employees. The future of Halo itself (and particularly Halo Infinite) is also up in the air.

While we've known about "Tatanka" for a while now and speculated that it was an upcoming battle royale-type mode in Infinite, it appears it may be spun off into its own title made in the Unreal Engine.

Schreier also reports that the team is "all but starting from scratch" when it comes to both 343 itself and the Halo franchise as a whole.

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In this article: 343 Industries, Halo Infinite.

About the Author

QuintLyn Bowers
QuintLyn Bowers, News Editor

QuintLyn is a long-time lover of all things video game related will happily talk about them to anyone that will listen. She began writing about games for various gaming sites a little over ten years ago and has taken on various roles in the games community.

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Discussion (1)

mmaxamms 1 year ago
To be fair, I 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 lost confidence in Halo Infinite. Not that I was ever massively impressed with it to begin with, it's always felt more like a mashup of metrics-driven ideas rather than a game with any substance or vision behind it. It however was still good for a few rounds after work or to blow off some steam with friends.

Alas, amid a massive restructuring from layoffs and a new team lead all getting instruction from a company that seems desperate to cut the fat for financial and (possibly) monopoly reasons, there's not a whole lot to feel confident about for the franchise. 𝘿𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙚 what Microsoft and 343 might claim. Let's not forget Patrick Wren's recent tweet calling the leadership "incompetent" and bashing them all around for the layoffs and current state of the game.

I'm sure the ground-level devs at 343 are trying the best they can to mine a diamond out of the current situation, but, it's hard to see how they're ever going to get it back up to the surface in the current climate


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