343 Industries Responds To Claims Of Halo Infinite Development 'Turbulence'

One of the big news stories going around yesterday was a report from Thurrott suggesting that Halo Infinite might have been suffering from significant turbulence behind the scenes - and now the Community Director at 343 Industries has stepped in to debunk some of those claims on social media.

To start with, 343 Industries issued a statement to IGN about the Halo TV series for Showtime, which allegedly had been a "significant distraction" for management behind the scenes.

In response, the developer explained that the two projects were completely separate:

"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."

Something that was also mentioned in the report was the idea that Halo Infinite's multiplayer might have been released separately to the game's single-player campaign - something Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently confirmed had been a late consideration during a recent interview ahead of delaying the game to 2021.

However, it was claimed by Thurrott's Brad Sams that the idea of separating the game has persisted for around a year-or-so - and back in July, he shared a tip from a source that suggested Halo Infinite might have released without multiplayer at launch.

In retort, Community Director Brian Jarrard explained this was never intended to be the case:

Ok, normally I/we don't even entertain this kind of stuff. But seeing as I'm partially implicated here, I'm going to address the part where he claims Phil Spencer validated his prior reporting even though I (343) denied it.

"The "reporting" at the time said "MP would not be shipping with single player this Fall." For a hot minute it was creating a storm on social until I chimed in to debunk it. The tweet that made that claim was then deleted.

Phil Spencer went on "Animal Talking" recently and while discussing the Infinite shift to 2021, did mention that separating MP and Campaign was briefly considered before the decision was made to shift it all to next year.
These are not the same things. At all.

Sams' unsubstantiated "report" in late July was 100% false and no such plan or discussion had ever happened. Campaign was never going to ship without MP, period.

More recently, as it became clear that the project needed more time, part of that assessment did entail trying to see if perhaps just MP could launch as planned but was deemed a non-starter. So even if that would've been the outcome, it's the opposite of what was reported in late July.

People can, and will, make up whatever stories they want but I have to draw the line at being personally implicated as being dishonest with the community. I may not always be allowed to say what I want to say (for example I'm probably not allowed to really get into a point by point response to this article), but I will always speak the truth."

The one major part of the report that Jarrard hasn't responded to relates to claims of Halo Infinite being significantly outsourced to third-party contractors, with one "insider" reportedly indicating that the rate of outsourcing is higher than usual on Infinite, and has caused "significant headaches for cross-development collaboration."

What do you make of this? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[source reddit.com]