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Over the weekend, a discussion gained significant traction on Reddit's largest Halo fan hub, focusing on 343 Industries' approach to storytelling in their Halo games and why the team, now known as Halo Studios, continues to introduce new concepts with each title. Rebs Gaming, a well-known Halo insider, joined the conversation by offering an interesting insight, revealing that the development team listens to the community more than many would expect.
Halo Studios
According to Rebs, quoting an anonymous 343 Industries developer, the studio had "a cool roadmap" to continue the story of Halo 5: The Guardians without needing a time-skip in the series' sixth installment, Halo Infinite. However, that roadmap was abandoned at some point during Infinite's development due to the community's negative reaction to Halo 5's story, and because of this, the Guardians, who reportedly would have had a much bigger role in the sequel, were not made the focus. In fact, the reactions towards Guardians were 'so negative the narrative team tried to wrap it up as quickly as they could,' the developer told the insider.
"Today's top post on the Halo Reddit page asks 'Why does 343 keep coming up with new concepts for each of their games?' This question has been asked many times over the years, so I wanted to finally provide Halo fans with confirmation that it's a result of negative reactions from Halo fans," Rebs wrote.
While it can't be definitively confirmed that Halo Infinite's original roadmap was abandoned because of community backlash – due to the anonymous nature of Rebs' source – it's not hard to believe it to be true, especially considering that even gaming outlets – who often sing praises and give out 8-9/10s to mediocre titles if they have a big-name company listed as its developer or publisher – criticized Halo 5's writing and story upon its release.
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