Microsoft has cut “at least 95 people” from Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries, according to a new report that sheds fresh light on this month’s layoffs.
The list of those now left without a job includes “dozens of veterans including top directors and contractors, upon which the studio heavily relies”, Bloomberg has claimed.
Temporary staff members were also affected, with their contracts reportedly terminated with “just a few days” of warning.
The changes leave Halo’s main development team working on the franchise’s multiplayer component for the immediate future, the report continued, and ditching Halo Infinite’s much-hyped Slipspace engine in favour of the more industry standard Unreal for its next Halo game project, which is codenamed Tatanka.
Officially, 343 has acknowledged the layoffs only to affirm that it was still working on Halo despite the huge number of people now gone from its team. “Halo and Master Chief are here to stay,” insisted 343 studio head “Halo and Master Chief are here to stay,” insists 343 Industries studio head Pierre Hintze last week. “343 Industries will continue to develop Halo now and in the future.”
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced it would cut a total of 10,000 jobs across its business as part of a wave of layoffs across numerous technology companies in the face of a predicted global recession.
At the time, reports suggested these job cuts had heavily impacted several internal Xbox game development studios, including Gears of War developer The Coalition and 343 Industires, as well as staff members within Bethesda Games Studios.
343 Industries has struggled to keep pace with the development of Halo Infinite since its delayed launch in December 2021, a year after its intended arrival alongside the Xbox Series X/S. In December last year, the studio reflected on the game a year on, acknowledged its issues, and promised it was “committed to making Halo Infinite better with every single update”.
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