Halo Infinite: bickering around developmental delay

Did the TV series really delay the game?

In an article published on Thurrott, journalist Brad Sams reveals the reasons that led to the delay of Halo Infinite. The reasons which led to postpone its release are linked to several factors. The first comes from the time spent on development. When the Halo Infinite project was entrusted to 343 Industries in 2015, they had to develop a game on an Xbox Series X that did not exist and whose power they had no idea of. As a reminder, the Xbox One X will be released two later in 2017.

Between the difficulty of designing a game engine for a console that we know nothing about and covid 19 which was invited at the end of development, it did not really help.

However, one of the real problems would come from outsourcing, or entrusting part of the development to several external companies. This practice is now widespread in video games. Even Ubisoft, yet capable of monopolizing more than 1000 people on a game, uses it. Except that 343 Industries would have entrusted much more important tasks to achieve than what is usually entrusted to these companies. With much of the game being done externally and lack of coordination, cross platform development has been greatly delayed.

According to Thurrott, several people who worked on the game called the collaboration behind the development a real challenge while many internal inconveniences with Tim Longo, Creative Director on Halo Infinite led him to leave the company in August 2019.

Other issues are also having a very negative impact, such as the announcement of free to play multiplayer at 120FPS. In reality, it is the result of communications from Halo. The developers therefore found themselves having to also optimize the multiplayer to reach 120 FPS.

Difficulties to develop for a new console

If it takes four to five years to develop a triple A, imagine that Ubisoft Montreal delivers its alpha versions, that is to say the game finished in broad outline and completely assembled a year before its marketing. In the case of Halo, the developers had to deal with a console whose features were discontinued a year before its launch.

On the other hand, studios know roughly what technology will be used five in advance. Except that Halo Infinite is supposed to be a technological showcase for the Xbox Series X, able to exploit all of its advances. But for that, it would have been necessary for the game to be finished last year in order to manage elements like ray tracing, correcting the fights, and balance and optimize the multiplayer for 120 FPS.

The Halo of Discord series, with IGN…

It is on the Halo series that Thurrott and IGN disagree. According to Thurrott, the making of the Halo series for the ShowTime channel also had a negative impact. By having to deliver the series on given dates for broadcast, the personnel resources to achieve this must necessarily have been taken from Halo Infinite.

What 343 Industries was quick to deny in an official message sent to IGN.

« 343 Industries has a devoted transmedia team that is working with Showtime on the creation and production of the Halo TV show. This group is separate from the Halo Infinite development team. These are two completely independent projects with dedicated teams and leadership that do not impact one another, »

343 Industrie has a dedicated transmedia team that works with Showtime on the creation and production of the Halo TV show. This group is separate from the Halo Infinite development team. These are two completely independent projects with dedicated teams and departments that have no impact on each other.

By protesting on this point, 343 Industries still implicitly validates the difficulties in creating the game on a console that does not exist, the communication problems, as well as the lack of coordination and the excessive workload entrusted to other studios.

In any case, the postponement of Halo Infinite remains a blow to Microsoft who relied on this game as the spearhead for the launch of the Xbox Series X. Forza Motorsport 7 and Forza Horizon 4 are still in their golden age to be replaced this year, and Gears 5 released last year will fortunately be upgraded at no cost to Series X.

The game being damn excellent, magnificent to die for and still relevant today, Microsoft will put the emphasis on improved games, not to mention a few third-party publishers, and especially intends to increase the announcements and communication concerning the Game Pass. Its purpose is to let players know that while there isn’t Halo yet, there are plenty of games out there already and on the cheap.

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