343 Industries Studio Head Bonnie Ross is Leaving After Leading Halo for 15 Years - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 12 September 2022 / 3,687 Views
343 Industries founder and studio head Bonnie Ross has announced her departure from the studio as she focuses on a family medical issue. Ross worked in gaming at Microsoft for over 28 years and was the lead at 343 Industries for 15 years.
Studio veteran and production lead Pierre Hintze is now the new studio head at 343 Industries and will lead development on Halo Infinite, The Master Chief Collection, and future games, according to Windows Central. Bryan Koski will be the GM of Franchise and Van Wyck will now oversee business and operations.
"While I had hoped to stay with Halo until we released the Winter Update, I am letting you know I will be leaving 343 and attending to a family medical issue," said Ross.
"I am incredibly proud of the work everyone at 343 Industries had dome with Halo Infinite, the Master Chief Collection, the Halo television series, and so much more. It has been a honor to serve alongside the team for the last 15 years and to be a part of a universe that I live.
"Thank you to everyone in the Halo community for your support. Halo's future is bright. I cannot wait for all of you to experience what we have in store - and to cheer alongside you, as a fan, at the Halo World Championship in October!"
— Bonnie Ross (@PlutonForEver) September 12, 2022
"Thanks [Bonnie Ross] for your contribution to the legacy of Xbox and everything you’ve done to expand the Halo universe with experiences for millions of fans around the world," said Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer.
Head of Creative for Halo Infinite Joseph Staten added, "Bonnie, I am forever grateful to you for you inviting me back to Halo. You will always be a part of this hopeful and heroic universe we love. Once a Spartan, always a Spartan! I wish you and your family all the best."
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Wishing her and her family the best. It was definitely time for new leadership at 343.
Couldn’t have said it better.
Should've fired after halo 5 lol
It was unrealistic what people online where demanding by getting rid of the studio. It's always the people in charge that get the axe. Or a fall guy and the place remains in shambles.
Honestly I think this is what the studio needs, new leadership. Good new leadership to be exact (and I don't mean that as a dig at Bonnie).
Pierre is definitely it! MCC would be completely dead if he hadn’t taken over development in 2018.
Taking the number two guy, that has been working under the number one woman for a while, and putting him in the number one chair is just barely "new leadership".
Hope this bring new winds to the studio
It definitely will! Pierre literally saved Halo MCC within a matter of months when he took over in 2018. And now that Bonnie’s responsibilities have been split into 3 roles with Pierre leading development, there may be life left in Halo Infinite.
I hope this is enough but personally I would have preferred they just got rid of the studio and split the employees up between your new studios. Give Halo to the Doom dev and be done with it.
IMO 343 has had so many issues with Halo over the years it's hard for me to believe this is just a leadership issue. Will see but IMO risking this company once again ruining another Halo game isn't something MS should even risk.
A lot of Halo content creators have met 343 developers many times and it's unanimously agreed upon that 343 has a lot of highly skilled developers that deeply love the Halo franchise and want it to be the best it can be. But, they don't make the decisions. Frank O'Connor, for example, has been Franchise Development Director this entire time and he has not led Halo down a good path. His only previous experience was a Content Manager for Bungie primarily as a writer for the Bungie Weekly Update. How he went from that to leading Halo, I have no idea. But, with Bonnie's responsibilities separated into 3 roles, one of them Bryan Koski being GM over Franchise, it seems like Frank's role was quietly killed off.
Pierre took over leadership of development for MCC in early 2018, and look at what a success story that collection turned into in a matter of months since he took over. Now not only is he Studio Head of 343, but he's overtaking development on Halo Infinite. Joe Staten staying lead over Creative, which is his strong suit. With the right leadership in place, Halo can flourish.
Well I hope your right. It will be a while before we really find out.
there wouldn't be relocation if they just split 343 up into 3 or 4 new studios in the same area. Most employees probably don't care if they work on Halo or on something they created themselves.
Shutting the studio down is not the right decision. I know 343 is apparently the worst studio ever by some, but it's not a dev issue. The developers who are their day-to-day are very talented and really care about the franchise. If ID software wants to tackle a Halo game then they can go for it, but that needs to be their decision, not forced on them by MS. This would only add to the conversation of MS mismanagement of studios.
I want ID to continue making Doom not Halo. 343 just needs a leadership change and new direction.
Same I want ID to continue with Doom also. After Doom 3 though I think it would be a good time to give the series a break. At the very least MS should take Halo and ask all the studios if anyone is interested or has any ideas on how to change it up and give it new life. I don't want this done anytime soon. I personally think Halo needs a good long break after this. By that time ID will most likely have just released Doom 4-5. Then after that lets see what they think.
There is nothing wrong with Halo, only the MP lacking constant content. The game, engine, and plot has protential. People seem to forget the MP in Halo is only half the game which also launched very solid compared to its rivals. Same with Gears 5. SP was awesome, MP had its issues at launch but had been addressed
And hopefully that rumored Quake reboot ;)
