Halo Infinite Keeps Losing Key Staff

Once again, Halo Infinite is facing another serious difficulty. The game, which has been worked on for half a decade now, is seeing yet another big name leave the production. Back in August of 2019, 343 Industries’ creative director Tim Long and executive producer Mary Olson left the project, which at the time was targeting a release date to coincide with the launch of Xbox’s new console, then called Project Scarlett.

A year later, Halo Infinite saw news of a delay, not making the unannounced November release date of the new console, and instead opting for a 2021 release after the gameplay made the rounds of marketing and left some fans skeptical. The flashy grappling hook caught some eyes, but so did the simplistic design of the Brutes and the unimpressive graphics for the flagship title of the new console that was supposed to surpass the modern standard of 4K.

Now Chris Lee, director of Halo Infinite and still an employee of Microsoft, has made the decision to leave his position with the project. With a series as big as Halo having a disappointing trailer, there must have been a drop in morale from reading online comments after E3 this year. It’s a bummer, as the idea of a sandbox Halo title could make for a fresh experience, seeing as previous games in the franchise had target completion of levels at 10 minutes, leaving the player with not enough time to appreciate the atmosphere.

This game has had quite the troubled development, but it’s most of the way there and I doubt Microsoft would go so far as to cancel a new game from their biggest IP, especially during the tight console war with the PS5 which has already announced an impressive list of exclusives. Here’s hoping the rest of the game gets finished with a concrete staff and a lack of crunch, and we get yet another awesome Halo game out of it!