In order get Halo Infinite over the line, 343 Industries have turned to two Halo veterans to join the team and reach its new release target in 2021. Pierre Hintze will bring his expertise to the multiplayer side of things, while writer Joseph Staten is helping to support the campaign as the new product lead. Both will have a key role in the final stages of the game’s development.
Staten is best known for his role in creating the original game. He was Director of Cinematics through the original trilogy, writing mission scripts and (most famously) provided the voice for the diminutive Grunts in the games. He went with Bungie when they gained independence and helped develop Destiny, but left in late 2013 as development on that game reset. He then rejoined Microsoft in 2014 as senior creative director and has held a number of roles surrounding Microsoft published games such as ReCore and Tell Me Why.
I'm thrilled to join @Halo to help them ship Halo Infinite. As the project lead for the Infinite Campaign, I will be supporting the team's existing, great leaders and empowering them to do their best work. https://t.co/pQiNPQVBZs
— Joseph Staten (@joestaten) August 27, 2020
Now he’s returning to Halo at a difficult time for the franchise. It’s difficult to know how big an impact he can really have (we don’t know the overall state of development for the game), but as product lead, 343 say his role will be “focused on supporting the campaign team’s existing, talented, creative leaders and ensuring they have everything they need to create an awesome Halo game.” Don’t expect major changes in game direction, but rather a fresh set of eyes that can point out areas that need the most attention, and the power to allocate the necessary resources to make that happen.
Pierre Hintze, meanwhile, is coming over from within 343 Industries, jumping from the Master Chief Collection which has been steadily coming to PC over the last year, to take over as project lead for the multiplayer side of Halo Infinite. It was recently confirmed that Halo infinite multiplayer will be going Free-to-Play, and with that comes a need to continually update and add to a game to keep players engaged. Hintze’s experience will be seen in how 343 handle any pre-release testing (called Flighting in 343’s parlance), which has been a key part of their iterative PC release of MCC, as well as taking the seasonal multiplayer and in-game rewards that were added to MCC in the last year and adapting this to Halo Infinite.
Halo Infinite was the big game from the Xbox Series X games showcase in July, but drew widespread criticism for the visuals on show during the gameplay reveal. Instead of wowing fans with dramatically next-gen graphics, the lighting from the day-night cycle left the game looking flat and uninspiring.
With criticism ringing in 343 industries’ ears, the studio fessed up to the fact that ray tracing would not be available with the game at the intended 2020 release date – this may obviously change with the release pushed back to next year – and that the game was running on a PC with an older build.
Even so, the game looks and sounds ambitious with an open or semi-open world design and 343 Industries talking about how the game will be a platform for the future, with new stories from the Halo universe told within Halo Infinite instead of new games.
Halo Infinite will be out for Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC in 2021.
Source: Halo Waypoint
