Tag: 343 Industries
Feature Firefight Makes An Absolutely Triumphant Return In Halo Infinite
The series' famous co-op mode returns!
Back in early October, 343 Industries announced Firefight's grand return to Halo - in the form of 'Firefight: King of the Hill' mode for Halo Infinite. Fast forward two months and we've been hands-on with the game mode ahead of its addition to Halo Infinite Season 5 - and it's safe to say
News Halo Infinite Dev Posts Lengthy Response To 'Increased' Bundle Prices
"I understand this isn't necessarily what everyone wants to hear"
Halo developer 343 Industries has finally begun implementing a long-promised Halo Infinite feature - customisation items that work across different 'Spartan Cores' within multiplayer. While this feature's addition is certainly welcome, it's brought an unfortunate consequence that's...
News Halo Infinite's Networking Is Being 'Fundamentally Changed' To Address De-Sync Issues
"We decided to pursue fundamental changes"
Pretty much since the launch of the game in late 2021, the Halo Infinite community has been very vocal about player de-sync issues in online multiplayer. Well, it looks like our prayers are being answered as 343 provides a huge update on the future of its under-the-hood multiplayer tech. Taking to Twitter...
News 343 Adds New Big-Team Infection Mode To Halo Infinite
As an "experimental" playlist
343 Industries has been doing good work with Halo Infinite over the last few seasons, adding plenty of new maps, modes, weapons and more into the multiplayer mix in recent months. Sometimes, the team gets a little experimental with its new modes, and that's exactly what it's done with the new 'Workshop BTB Infection' m
News 343 Shares New Look At Remade Halo 3 Maps For Upcoming Halo Infinite Mode
Are you excited for 'Halo 3 Refueled'?
'Halo 3 Refueled' is a new Halo Infinite multiplayer mode arriving later on during Season 5, and ahead of its addition next month, the team at 343 Industries has showcased a bunch of new images featuring its selection of remade maps. We have classics like Guardian, High Ground, Narrows and The Pit here - and...
News Halo Infinite Hits Highest PC Player Count In Over A Year As Season 5 Lands
The Steam numbers are up
There's quite a bit of hype building around Halo Infinite Season 5 at the moment - and that hype is already translating into a healthy PC player bump for 343 Industries and Microsoft. We're not talking astronomical numbers here, but the Steam version of Halo Infinite surpassed 15k concurrent players yesterday for the first...
News 343 Reveals Exact Release Times For Halo Infinite Season 5
Here's when you can go hands on in your region
Excitement is starting to build around Halo Infinite Season 5; the game's next content drop that's set to bring lots of new goodies to Halo Infinite multiplayer. Ahead of its nearby release, 343 Industries has revealed exactly when we can all jump in and try the new content out. Halo Infinite Season 5...
Rumour Halo's Next Story Campaign Is In Development On Unreal Engine
"Yes, they do have a team working on the next Halo campaign"
Earlier this year, we heard reports that 343 Industries had decided not to bother pursuing any sort of single-player DLC for Halo Infinite - instead focusing on multiplayer content post-launch. However, that doesn't mean the team hasn't started work on an entirely new Halo campaign, and a...
Reaction Halo Infinite Should Focus On More Co-Op Experiences After The Return Of Firefight
The survival mode is coming in Season 5, but we want more
During yesterday's Halo Infinite Season 5 trailer, the team at 343 Industries revealed that some form of Firefight is returning to the game with 'Firefight King of the Hill'. We don't have all the details just yet on what this objective-based spin on Firefight will actually look like, but...
News Halo Infinite Season 5 Brings Firefight Back To The Series
Firefight King of the Hill is coming during the next season
343 Industries has just lifted the lid on Halo Infinite Season 5, and it looks jam-packed with multiplayer goodies. The new season begins on October 17, and above is just a taste of what's on the way to Halo Infinite. We're getting a returning game mode from Halo 4 in the form of...
News Halo Infinite's 'Husky Raid' Mode Introduces Eight New Small-Scale Forge Maps
All wrapped up in "everyone’s favorite linear CTF mode"
Developer 343 Industries has introduced another new game mode to Halo Infinite - this time a returning classic that debuted in the team's very first outing, Halo 4. 'Husky Raid' is a tighter spin on Capture the Flag, where Spartans duke it out on small, narrow maps that funnel players right...
News Halo Infinite Update Improves Forge Mode & Adds Halo: Reach Map Remake
Lots to get into here!
Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has just deployed another update for the game's multiplayer suite, and there are quite a few improvements, additions and changes tucked into this patch. First up, the team has added a new multiplayer map to the game in the form of 'Dredge'. OK, it's not entirely new — it's a tweaked...
News Halo Infinite Adds Two More Classic Maps To 'Squad Battle' Playlist
Halo 2 and 4 featured in new update
343 Industries has expanded on Halo Infinite's recently-added nostalgia-fuelled playlist by adding two more classic maps to its rotation. 'Squad Battle' was launched as a new matchmaking option two weeks ago — an 8v8 mode taking place on remade Halo 3 maps — and now Halo 2 and Halo 4 have joined the fray...
Random Fake 'Halo 3 Remastered' Ads Appear On Times Square Billboard
This would be one way to announce it!
'Halo 3 Remastered' doesn't exist in any form right now — at least as far as we know publicly — but the small fact that it's not a real thing doesn't seem to be stopping some Halo fans from pretending to believe. As we've spotted over on the Halo subreddit, some fans of the series appear to be paying to...
News 343's Master Chief Collection Modders Are Making The Halo 3 'E3 2006 Trailer' Playable
Can you BELIEVE it?!
Last week, we poured over 343's 'Digsite Deliveries' blog post that detailed loads of old, unreleased Halo content being added to the Master Chief Collection - and the team is now back and at it again. This new post, 'Digsite Discoveries', is showcasing even more old school Halo content being reworked for MCC on PC, and the team...
News Halo Infinite Adds 8v8 'Squad Battle' Mode On Remade Halo 3 Maps
Fans wants this as a permanent playlist!
Halo developer 343 Industries has unveiled its latest rotational multiplayer playlist for Halo Infinite, and it seems to be going down very well so far. The new matchmaking mode, Squad Battle, is an 8v8 playlist featuring Slayer and objective game types on community-made maps, and it's a huge throwback to...
News 343 Is Bringing Loads Of Never-Before-Seen Halo 1 & 2 Content To Master Chief Collection On PC
Maps, weapons, assets and more!
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is already a mammoth catalogue of games containing all of the Bungie- era Halo titles and more, but it's about to get even bigger on PC. As part of the team's 'Digsite' project, 343 has shown off a bunch of old archived Halo goodies that are being re-worked for MCC on PC. There's...
News 343 Industries: Halo Infinite's 'Consistency' Has Improved, But 'Quality' Needs More Work
It's all about "Consistency, Satisfaction and Quality"
Halo Infinite Season 4: Infection finally arrives this week on June 20th, and ahead of that date, the game's Head of Live Service has had some interesting comments to share about the future of Halo Infinite's overall development. Speaking to Xbox Wire, Sean Baron explained that he believes Halo...
News Halo Infinite Campaign AI Is Coming To Multiplayer With The 'Forge AI Toolkit'
The team goes in-depth on the future of Forge
In a new blog post, 343 Industries has announced that campaign AI is coming to Halo Infinite's Forge mode in the future. The idea of adding AI to help with PvE creations has been floating around for months, but the Halo dev has now officially committed to the feature as Season 4 approaches. When talking...
News Would Activision Be A Good Fit For Halo? Xbox's Matt Booty Shares His Thoughts
"It would have to come from the studios"
Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty has certainly been doing the rounds over the past few days following the very well-received Xbox Games Showcase 2023, and his latest interview has gone live today courtesy of Axios. As part of the discussion, Booty explained how his team at Microsoft
News Halo Infinite Promises To 'Unleash Mayhem' Next Week In New Season 4 Trailer
"Will you survive?"
Are you ready for Halo Infinite Season 4? 343 Industries is preparing to deploy the latest update for the game across Xbox consoles and PC next week on June 20th, 2023, and you can check out the brand-new launch trailer above. As previously confirmed, Halo Infinite Season 4 is bringing back the popular Infection game mode later...
News Forge Is Getting Some Major Updates With Season 4 Of Halo Infinite
Minigames, new objects, water planes and more!
We know that Season 4 is going to be a big one for Halo Infinite, with a brand-new progression system making its debut later this month. Now though, the team at 343 has unveiled what's changing for Forge mode during the coming season, and it's sounding like a solid set of improvements and new features...
Soapbox I Hope Halo Infinite's New Progression System Keeps Me Hooked For Good
In for the long haul
Halo Infinite has had an attention retention problem pretty much since launch back in late 2021. 343's latest Halo title has the best core mechanics that the team has ever produced, but there's just something missing when it comes to keeping me hooked and wanting to play for hours on end. I don't seem to be alone in that...
News Halo's Longtime Franchise Director Has Left Microsoft
It follows Joseph Staten's departure earlier this month
Halo lead Joseph Staten only recently announced he would be leaving Microsoft, and now it seems another Halo veteran has moved on. According to Axios' Stephen Totilo, Microsoft has confirmed the departure of Halo franchise director Frank O'Connor. He contributed to Master Chief's journey for...
News Ex-Halo Lead Announces New Project After Leaving Team Xbox
Moving onto pastures new
Earlier this month, Halo veteran and long-time Xbox developer Joseph Staten revealed that he was leaving Microsoft, and he's not taken long to announce where he's heading. In a new social media post today, the Halo Infinite project lead has revealed his new destination. Staten is heading over to Netflix to direct something...
News Halo Infinite Season 3 Is Going Down Well, Despite Xbox Performance Issues
Fixes are on the way
Halo Infinite Season 3 is now underway, as developer 343 Industries revamps the game's multiplayer with three new maps, a fresh 100-tier battle pass, new menu themes and much more besides. Overall, the new additions for Season 3 seem to be going down pretty well, with players enjoying the injection of fresh content after the...
News Yes, Halo's Joe Staten Really Has Rejoined Xbox Publishing
It's social media "official" now
At the start of this year when Microsoft announced mass layoffs and some changes within the Xbox division, it was also revealed Halo Infinite's Head of Creative Joseph Staten would be rejoining Xbox Game Studios Publishing. It's admittedly been quite hard for some fans to accept, but now it seems his move back to...
News Ray Tracing Is Coming To Halo Infinite On Xbox Series X
The feature is now live on PC
343 Industries seems to be getting into its stride when it comes to Halo Infinite post-launch updates, with the stacked Season 3 now live across Xbox and PC. While the update added new ray tracing features to the PC version of the game, the team has also revealed that RT is coming to consoles too. Well, one console at...
News Halo Infinite Season 3 Maps Detailed As Forge Passes One Million Creations
The new season arrives next week
It's a big month for Halo Infinite! The team at 343 Industries is finally delivering on its promise of more content with the release of Season 3, which arrives March 7th. Ahead of launch, the team has released a new trailer showcasing the season's brand new Arena and Big Team Battle maps. We've got three...
News Halo Infinite's 'Biggest Multiplayer Update' Yet Shown Off In Season 3 Launch Trailer
Echoes Within arrives March 7
Halo Infinite is getting its biggest multiplayer update to date next month, when 'Echoes Within' arrives across Xbox consoles and PC on March 7th. The game's third major season includes 3 new hand-crafted maps, new weapons & equipment, fresh Forge content and more. It's all shown off in the launch trailer up above,...
Report Xbox Is 'All But Starting From Scratch' On Next Halo Project, Moving Over To Unreal Engine
Following Infinite's troubled development
Halo Infinite seems to be all over the gaming news right now, and sadly, not for the reasons you'd want it to be. Following Microsoft's recent round of company layoffs, we've been hearing a lot about restructuring at Halo dev 343 Industries, and a new report sheds even more light on what looks like a major...
News Xbox Research Survey Asks Fans If They Are 'Done Playing Halo Infinite'
343 guilty stark
Plenty of discussion regarding the future of Halo Infinite, and the studio behind it at 343 Industries, has been ongoing recently in the wake of mass layoffs at Microsoft. While we don't know the full details of just how badly the team has been affected by Microsoft's internal changes (there were certainly some job losses), it seems...
News New Report Suggests Restructure At Halo Dev 343 Industries Is 'Ongoing'
The team says it will continue to work on the franchise
As a result of Microsoft's recent round of layoffs, Halo developer 343 Industries has been hit with a number of job losses in what sounds like a fairly major restructuring of the company moving forward. The team has since put out a statement to
News Halo Infinite Campaign DLC Reportedly 'Never Existed', Multiplayer Live Service The Focus
Fireteams at the ready
Prior to 343 Industries' recent statement regarding the future of the Halo series, rumours were swirling that the team had scaled back its Halo Infinite post-launch plans following a series of layoffs over at Microsoft. However, new reports are suggesting those rumours were false, and that 343's DLC plans were being...
News 343 Industries Unveils Official Statement On The Future Of Halo
"Halo and Master Chief are here to stay"
It's been a rough week for Halo developer 343 Industries, with reports suggesting that the studio had been hit particularly hard by the recent layoffs at Microsoft, and speculation that Halo might even be passed to another team outside of 343i in the future. Well, that's not going to happen. Today, 343...
News Halo's Joe Staten Provides Update Following 343 & Microsoft Layoffs
"I’m 100% focused on helping people who lost their jobs"
It's been a bit of a wild week for Microsoft so far, with the company announcing it would be cutting 10,000 jobs. This has also surprisingly hit the Xbox division within the tech giant - including Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries. Apart from layoffs, it was announced that Halo...
Talking Point Should Microsoft & 343 Carry On With Halo Infinite?
What's next?
Yesterday, Microsoft confirmed its plans for roughly 10,000 layoffs throughout the company, with Halo developer 343 Industries reportedly "hit hard" by the job losses. While the company restructure hasn't been fully detailed by Microsoft, and some of what's coming out regarding 343i are just reports right now, the whole situation does...
News Former Halo Developer Blames 'Incompetent Leadership' For Layoffs At 343 Industries
"The layoffs shouldn't have happened"
Yesterday brought us the news that Microsoft was laying off 10,000 people across its workforce, and early reports suggested that Halo developer 343 Industries had been hit quite badly as a result of the layoffs. Since then, we've seen numerous Xbox and Bethesda employees take to social media to confirm their...
Report 343 Industries 'Hit Hard' By This Week's Job Cuts At Microsoft
Joe Staten is apparently leaving the studio as well
Earlier today, Microsoft confirmed that plans were in place to reduce the company's workforce by 10,000 jobs, and it appears as though Halo developer 343 Industries is one of the studios that has suffered quite heavily as a result. According to early reports from Jason Schreier of Bloomberg,...
News Halo Infinite Season 3 Content Shown Off In Latest 343i Livestream
New maps, weapons, armor cores and more!
Halo Infinite has seen some major updates in recent weeks, especially with Forge's arrival in early November. The expansive toolset's addition to Infinite was quickly followed up by a brand-new custom game server browser for players to enjoy, and now, the team is pivoting towards what's coming during Season...
News 343 Industries: 'Bigger Things To Come' For Halo Infinite In 2023
"We can't wait to turn this corner with you all"
Well, the Halo Infinite Winter Update is finally here, marking the game's largest content drop since launch around a year ago. The update is packed with goodies like online campaign co-op, Forge mode, a
News Halo Infinite 'Fell Short' After Launch And Needs To 'Recover', Admits Xbox Studio Head
"We just fell short on the plan..."
It's no secret at this point that Halo Infinite has suffered a rough time ever since its release back in late 2021. The actual launch was great, and we had brilliant things to say in our review, but the post-launch momentum just wasn't there for 343 Industries, and players have suffered from a lack of regular new...
News Phil Spencer & Co. Show Their Support At Halo World Championship Event
"Amazing to see all the energy at this event"
Over this past weekend, the Halo World Championship final has been taking place in Seattle, which has provided the opportunity for some of the most prominent Team Xbox members to attend, given its relatively close proximity to Xbox HQ. One of those members is the Xbox boss himself, Phil Spencer, who has...
News Halo & F1 Partnership Spawns Amazing Master Chief-Inspired Helmet
HCS and Quadrant team up
British Formula One rep Lando Norris, who is currently racing with McLaren, has unveiled his very own Halo Master Chief style helmet. The racer will be wearing it at the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix, taking place this coming weekend. Lando has always been a fan of the Halo series, mentioning in an interview on social media...
News Digital Foundry Says Halo Infinite Split-Screen Is 'Excellent', 343 Declines To Comment
"It's a brilliant way to play the game"
You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, Halo fans found a way to get local split-screen working in the campaign of Halo Infinite, and the most bizarre thing of all was that it was working really well, despite having been cancelled. Well, our friends over at
News Microsoft Announces 343 Industries Leadership Team Restructure
Pierre Hintze is the new studio head
Yesterday, the Xbox and Halo community got some "shock news" - with Head of 343 Industries Bonnie Ross announcing she would be leaving the studio (as well as Microsoft) due to a family medical issue. In case you missed it, her replacement will be Head of Production Pierre Hintze. Hintze is an industry veteran...
News Bonnie Ross, The Head Of Halo, Is Leaving 343 Industries And Microsoft
"I will be leaving and attending to a family medical issue"
We've got some shock news to share today, as the Head of 343 Industries Bonnie Ross has announced she's leaving the company - as well as Microsoft - and will be "attending to a family medical issue" following her departure. Ross shared a message to Halo's fans on Twitter earlier today,...
News Halo Infinite Review-Bombed On Steam After Recent Developer Update
The news hasn't gone down well
It's no secret that the fan reaction to Halo Infinite's most recent developer update hasn't been very positive. The news that seems to have caused the biggest stir is 343's decision to drop development on local split screen co-op, a feature that's been in the works in some fashion since launch. Sadly, these...
News Halo Infinite's Free 'The Yappening' Event Is Now Live On Xbox
Yapyap is backback
At the tail end of August, 343 Industries started to tease its latest free event - one relating to Halo Wars 2's 'Yapyap the Destroyer'. After that sneak peek, the event is now live in Halo Infinite, featuring a free 10-tier Battle Pass, a bunch of new modes, and more. As usual, the Event Pass features a selection of rewards from...
News Halo Infinite Players Discover Split-Screen Exploit On Xbox Series X|S
"It runs at 60fps even with four players"
Some Halo Infinite fans were left disappointed last week when 343 Industries announced it was cancelling development of a local split-screen co-op feature for campaign mode, which has led some players to take matters into their own hands! Basically, there's a way to actually glitch into split-screen co-op...
