Certain Affinity's 'Unannounced' Halo Infinite Project Has Close To 100 Devs Working On It

Gotta be a heavily monetized battle royale mode

@Would_you_kindly surely. I hope it's good, but i'm maintaining my low expectations

100% he's talking about a battle royale mode, for other two projects if say one is a new story DLC and the last one is anyone's guess I'd say a horde mode.

Bring back couch-co-op.

And 343i with hundreds of developers are doing what?
Dam forget yesterday we answered that, sleeping.

@Carck they're about to buy Activision so they'll own warzone soon anyway I don't think they need another battle royale when they'll have a pretty popular one already but of course thats where the big bucks are

Master Chief Kart

I wouldn't be surprised if they are involved in a BR mode but I don't think it would take a team of 100 to make a 'traditional' Battle Royale experience. BR's tend to have 1 'big' Map (at launch) with different 'regions' and use the same assets, animations, weapons, move sets etc as the MP. Its basically an 'open world' sized large MP map with no AI or scripted events, static environments, usually a set time of day and some 'mechanism' to shrink the playable space down as player numbers drop too.

To me, 100 people would be required to make something a lot more involved. Maybe a new Narrative driven episode requiring Concept artists, animators, character creators etc - maybe some 'co-operative' mode that's Narrative driven with cut scenes etc but I'm just speculating.

Of course they could do something 'unique' in a Battle Royale type mode that requires a lot more people than I expected - break away from the 'traditional' 100+ to 1 on a gradually reducing playable Map space, scavenging for weapons, armour, gear and vehicles, maybe it could start off with groups of players on smaller separate maps battling AI (maybe co-op teams) to escape from whatever 'base/prison/ship etc' and if they 'do', those that are left end up on this planet (ship crash site, Base, Prison etc could be areas of the 'big' map) and the Ship Crash for example could be the Narrative to triggering some event that causes the 'playable' area to shrink - and only a 1-4 player escape pod is available to the 'winner(s)' so they have to 'survive' and kill other players and AI enemies to escape - maybe the 'end' is a Boss fight against a Captain who wants the escape pod...

A whole narrative driven Battle Royale for example with a mix of co-op/SP story - all 'Marines' stuck on the planet/on a ship and fighting the 'AI' enemies to escape your predicament following on from say the end of Halo Infinite where the success of Master Chief has made all the Marines everywhere rise up. That's the start of the BR where all players are marines and you first have to 'rise' up and escape - finding out you have to 'kill' others to ensure 'you' survive in the only escape pod but its location is 'unknown' (happens to be where the last playable area is each time)

@Kaloudz
Well we can but hope we might get a massive surprise or something big, wrongs righted and an amazing campaign expansion.
I really don’t know what this team do, because their output on show is dismal for the team size.
After what we got for six years work I have no expectations for anything.
Such a shame as one of my most best gaming memories was the original Xbox with Halo.
So special and revolutionary when it was released.

@Kaloudz
343i has about 750 to 800 team wise
That is massive, must be some serious issues over there for sure.

Sounds nuts but I'd be interested in a multi planet Mass Effect style rpg only in first person within the Halo universe. Maybe too big in scope and budget for these developers though.

@Exerion76 I'd say the gameplay has remained consistently good, even evolved somewhat no pun intended but I've not paid attention to the dull writing since Halo 3.

@UltimateOtaku91 It says in the article that they could be making a Monster Hunter type game... not all Halo projects

As many have said, this is clearly the oft-rumored BR.

BRs are fun and, despite nearly every other issue, Halo Infinite is fun from a gameplay perspective. Hopefully it meshes.

In the far flung possibility that it's something NOT a BR... a slow, tactical, ODST game would be more than welcome.

@Dezzy70 The only reference I can see to 750 was a Reddit Post but everywhere else seems to indicate that they have about 450 people employed (from Professional based sites like LinkedIn for example) to not only 'make' video games, but also handle 'everything' to do with Halo - that includes film/TV, licensing, merchandising etc too.

Bonnie Ross oversaw EVERYTHING - from trying to get Halo Infinite out to involved in the Halo TV show - and now with her leaving, they have split her workload down into 3 separate positions. Maybe the fact that 'Bonnie' was being pulled in too many directions, trying to get Halo Infinite out, having to be involved with the TV shows and whatever other projects, collaborations, merchandise etc that Halo offers caused 'some' delays, issues etc just because she was needed in too many places at once.

They have collaborated on pretty much every Halo Product released under 343 - Creative Assembly collaborated on Halo 2 as well for example. Regardless of that, since Halo 5: Guardians released in 2015, 343i have released:
2016 - Halo Wars - Definitive Edition
2017 - Halo Wars 2
2017 - Halo Recruit (PC VR experience)~
2018 - Halo Fireteam Raven (arcade cabinet game)

As well as these video game projects (I know not all came to Xbox and 1 was a 'remaster'), 343i have also been involved in getting the Halo TV show off the ground and onto our screens. Not only that, they have also kept working on and drastically improving 2014's Halo: MCC - adding 'ODST' and 'Reach' as well after initially only releasing as a compilation of the 4 'main' games. That has been occupying a number of staff over 'years'.

Now I am NOT going to quibble over the number of Staff employed at 343i - whether its 450-750 is irrelevant. Its not as if they have ALL been fully focused on making Halo Infinite since Halo Guardians released and that a good proportion of the 'team' were engaged in 'other' projects - like Halo:MCC, Halo Wars 2, Halo TV show etc etc. Therefore you can't say that this was made by 'All' and that they have ALL had 6yrs on Halo: Infinite so should of been 'better'.

343i are in charge of 'everything' Halo so if they want to make Halo Funkopops (or whatever those things were called), Halo books/comics etc, there would be some 343i Staff employed to organise and co-operate with manufacturers to release these products. I don't know how many of 343i are actually 'Game' developers and which are writers, illustrators, merchandising, cleaners, admin staff, IT maintenance etc etc

There is nothing for me to get excited about until something is released and I'm playing it. Until then, I really wish everything Halo would just be kept quiet.

@BAMozzy
So maybe it’s down to stretching a team to far or the management from high above getting to few to do to much.
We will never know, but they need to produce an overall higher quality of Halo game.

@Exerion76
Yeah, I don't know about moving on from Halo but I do wish MS and Bungie had been able to work out some differences. Stop Halo after Reach, let Bungie work on new stuff, let some other companies do some Halo spinoffs to keep the IP in the public and then, when (if) the time was right, have Bungie revisit the main series again.

The dropping of Halo local co-op is extremely anti-family and anti-consumer.

@Dezzy70 Higher Quality will mean something different to everyone. For some, the Graphical presentation of a Cross generational Halo will never be 'high' enough quality because its having to run on the weakest hardware too.

Better 'quality' story - well that's going to be subjective, better game-play loop can be too - especially if you are adding to or removing 'something' from 'previous' games in a series. Too much change and you'll lose/upset the traditionalists - not enough and it starts to get stale/repetitive...

Halo Infinite is the best 343i game I have played. Halo 4 looked great, but was extremely short and was left feeling with 'is that it' - I expected a LOT more. Halo 5 had a terrible story, repetitive campaign and a very 'CoD' inspired MP suite - perhaps because that was when CoD moved to PS from Xbox. I am not keen on RTS games or top down twin stick shooters so didn't really enjoy/play much of Halo Wars or the Halo Spartan games.

To me, Halo Infinite is the 'closest' to the 'Bungie' era Halo experience brought up to a 'modern' type of game. The Original Halo had a mix of big open spaces, although very 'little' activities to do compared to H:I and making your way through linear corridors and big 'rooms' of buildings/ships etc. Add in some better 'movement' mechanics, the zipline for example and you have a much more exciting way to engage enemies and/or explore your environment and because its more designed to be explored with more activities, collectibles etc, it's more rewarding to explore. Take the 'first' open section of Halo:CE - three things you need to clear from enemies and you can do them in any order, but exploring is not really worthwhile as there isn't a 'lot' to find. If that was made today, you'd expect to find some 'base' to clear, some collectibles, some other 'optional' activities to 'fill' out the spaces between those 3 main mission objective points. There is a 'Similar' thing on H:I where you have to destroy 3 items in a 'large' section of the Map.

I still maintain that Halo Infinite is the 'best' 343 Halo game to date and the first that really captures the essence and spirit of the Original game. The Only thing I think that they have really let themselves down with is the 'post' release content/support. They have not been able to keep up with or meet the demand for new content especially in the MP mode. That's had a 'knock-on' effect as each season hasn't lived up to the demand and satisfied the hunger for more. Add in delays to Forge (which would add a LOT of content to MP) and cancellation of split-screen co-op, these 'sour' the overall impression and why 'upset/angry' people who wanted 'more' react so negatively.

At the end of the day, this is the 'closest' 343 have got to the Bungie era of Halo and most enjoyable Halo Campaign for well over a decade. I couldn't care less about MP and never liked it but then you can play it 'free' now which you never could before...

It was clearly designed for XB1 hardware and perhaps would have been better received if they had managed to release at 'launch' as a 'launch' cross-generational game - its still better than MANY cross generational games that we see releasing today but I do appreciate that people get 'emotional' over games/gaming and that impacts their rationality and objectivity...

They need something because Halo Infinite is the biggest Halo disaster yet.