LogInA fish rots from the head down.
A few days ago, development studio 343 Industries made headlines with several major announcements pertaining to the legendary Halo game series, revealing during the Halo World Championship 2024 that they would be rebranding as Halo Studios and transitioning from their proprietary Slipspace Engine to Unreal Engine for all future titles in the franchise.
While many fans welcomed the announcements with open arms, others saw them as nothing but an attempt to distract the audiences from the issues plaguing the franchise – issues that, in the eyes of many, are the root cause of 343's Halo games being, while not horrible, generally less well-liked than Bungie's original titles.
Will Waltz, a seasoned developer who has spent over 12 years working as 343 Industries' Senior R&D (Principal) Animator and someone who definitely knows a thing or two about the studio's inner workings, was among the skeptics, taking to social media shortly after the announcements were made to point out that not everything is sunshine and rainbows at the newly renamed Halo Studios and criticize what he and many others perceive as the company's main problem – its leadership.
In his posts shared over on LinkedIn, Waltz stated that despite the rebranding, he would not recommend working for Halo Studios, comparing the move to Comcast now calling themselves Xfinity – a change in name without any real impact. Moreover, the developer denounced Halo Studios' executives, particularly Studio Head Pierre Hintze, describing them as "cancer" and "creatively limiting" individuals who, even after switching to Unreal Engine, will still "find a way to organizationally make it un-fun to work there".
Additionally, Waltz expressed his hope that Certain Affinity, the studio led by former Bungie developer Max Hoberman, which co-developed Halo 4 and was responsible for Halo 2's multiplayer DLC, takes over the Halo franchise entirely. Speaking from a Halo fan's perspective, he said he believes that Certain Affinity would do a much better job with the series than 343 Industries.
"The fact that 343 had to change their name to Halo Studios because fans and developers hate the studio's leadership and executive handling of it cannot be good for their team's morale," Waltz wrote. "The wonderful employees and friends that are still stuck at 343 deserve better leadership and vision if they're going to continue trying to make Halo games worthy of the fans."
In the comments, Waltz further elaborated on his dislike for Halo's current leadership, sharing some personal experiences from his time working on the franchise. According to the developer, it was actually his idea to switch to Unreal Engine, a suggestion he repeatedly made to the executives when Halo Infinite was still in the planning stage before he was unceremoniously fired, alongside 10,000 other workers terminated by Microsoft in 2023.
"Imagine telling a studio almost daily how to succeed for 13 years, 7 of them were spent educating a clueless executive team (with a purely corporate publishing background and no real hands-on coding or art and in some cases, gaming, experience) how to actually make something and explaining to them over and over why using Unreal for [Halo Infinite] would be far better for them to switch to now that they decided the game should be vastly dynamic and open world," the developer recalled. "The last 5 years at 343 for me were spent (aside from animation duties), hiring UX designers, educating an entire studio on why a good user experience is important for artists to have fun while they make their best work.
I remember, before they did it, explaining that they'd likely save billions of dollars if they switched. Imagine all of that and then to have the studio lay you all off without a thank you without even an acknowledgment of 13 years of work, just an email shows up one day from Microsoft HR. Then a year later they say they have a great idea, they're switching to Unreal!"
When a commenter described Waltz's posts as "bitter", the developer replied that they were meant to be this way, noting that "companies should know when they've done a bad job" and reiterating that he has no issues with Halo Studios' developers, only with its leadership.
"My colleagues were and remain some of the coolest and most talented folks out there. We wanted/still want good Halo too. I think they have a much better chance embracing Unreal, but how they've gone about it all has been too disingenuous for me to stay quiet about."
So, what do you think about Waltz's revelations? Do you agree with his take on Halo's current management? Leave your thoughts down in the comments below!
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