Just 3 weeks before Halo Infinite’s next big update, parent company microsoft announces lay offs of approximately 1,000 employees in anticipation of recession. They have also instituted a company wide hiring freeze. This means the understaffed and overworked developer 343 Industries will remain understaffed for the foreseeable future.
How does this affect the community? well the current roadmap is full of great new additions to the game such as campaign co op, forge, match xp beta, and new maps. But now it appears likely that there will be further delays and shifting of priorities. The roadmap is noted “As of September 1st subject to change”
I speculate we’ll now see a revised roadmap sometime mid January.
What do you want from the roadmap now and what do you think could wait?
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Not much we can do here but wait and see. Maybe 343 weren’t too heavily affected.
Hoping all the best for the displaced employees at Microsoft, that’s a lot of people out of a job.
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I imagine MS’s layoffs probably occurred in spaces that are supporting products with low use and poor profits.
I don’t think any Xbox studios would fall into that, but I’m definitely not sure. I’m thinking MS is probably using support studios to supplement 343 during this difficult time with employees
The hiring freeze has been in play since August. No layoffs at 343. However, they are currently operating at around half of their staff capacity.
The road map was laid out with this hiring freeze anticipated. I do not believe we’ll see any changes to the road map at all. 343 should still be able to meet target goals.
I should also note that the hiring freeze in regards to how it impacts 343 is on an individual basis. 343 has brought on new talent from engineers to producers in recent weeks. They just need approval from Microsoft leadership first.
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