Halo Infinite Had Two-Thirds of Content Cut in 2019 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 09 December 2021 / 2,371 Views
Six years after the release of the last mainline Halo game, publisher Xbox Game Studios and developer 343 Industries yesterday launched the campaign for Halo Infinite.
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier in a report revealed Halo Infinite in 2019 was in development hell and the studio decided to cut two-thirds of the content. The open-world was originally going to to be much larger, described as a Zelda-like experience.
"Halo Infinite’s creative direction was also in flux until unusually late in its development," reads the report. "Several developers described 343 as a company split into fiefdoms, with every team jockeying for resources and making conflicting decisions. One developer describes the process as 'four to five games being developed simultaneously.'
"By the summer of 2019, Halo Infinite was in crisis mode. The studio decided to cut almost two-thirds of the entire planned game, leaving managers to instruct some designers to come to the office and do nothing while the studio figured out the next move. Eventually the game’s open world was cut back from a vast, Zelda-like experience into something far smaller."
Halo Infinite is available for the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Xbox Game Pass.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Halo Finite
It is great as it is at least. Campaign is amazing so far cant wait for more.
Important to set realistic goals.
I hope if there was any main missions in that cut content, that we see those ideas realised in DLC
Most of the cut ideas from Halo 2 became Halo 3. But yes, in this case it would probably be through updates to the game and/or DLC, given Infinite is intended to be a 10 year project.
That was a massive management failure. At least the final product ended up in good shape.
Halo Limited
Good article!
That's fine given the campaign is apparently the biggest in the series.
I would like to see a truly open world Halo, perhaps the sequel can aim for that now the foundation is complete.
Leadership is the key. Plus they probably couldn’t stomach the idea of a Zelda sized game on GamePass.
Wouldn't they want large games that take a long time to complete on Game Pass to help keep people subscribed?
The problem with super huge ambitious games is they are rarely completed and get scaled back significantly. As is the game is pretty large and has content coming.
Also, Gamepass's constant stream of new content probably does a better job at keeping users subscribed.
Sounds a lot like Crackdown 3.
Except with a happier ending, since Halo Infinite is going over well. Hopefully they have professionalized their development approach since then!
Crackdown 3 was a good game to people that already like Crackdown.
But that multiplayer was a joke.
Yes Infinite is great. I enjoyed Crackdown, too.
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