Are id Software and MachineGames helping 343?

Games Halo Infinite
1

I am aware Skybox Labs, Sperasoft, and Certain Affinity (with Max Hoberman) are already helping or have helped in Halo Infinite development. Some people speculate there are even more external teams contributing to the making of Halo Infinite. We know Joseph Staten is involved too as a project lead. The Zenimax acquisition by Microsoft should be concluded later next year, but I assume the Bethesda Studios are already at work for Xbox in the meantime. 343 had to rely on external studios many times, but now there are two more internal studios with experience in making first-person shooters: id Software and MachineGames.

The Doom franchise and the Wolfenstein franchise are loved by the gaming community, so 343 being helped by id Software and MachineGames would not only make financial sense (because they’re internal studios and because more people working leads to shorter development time), but would also be a potential improvement in some areas of Halo Infinite, and would also be much needed huge positive news. And something I would love to happen. This is my take on the matter.

I would like everybody in the forum to share their opinion too, what do you think id Software and MachineGames (keeping in mind their games) could bring to improve Halo Infinite.

With that premise, I think it would be extremely cool of 343i to alleviate the drought of info and share some news with us regarding the people and the teams who are involved in making Halo Infinite. I’d like you to join me in asking 343 to share some news about the teams (external or internal) who are helping them out. How are they contributing? And will id Software and MachineGames be part of the development?

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> I am aware Skybox Labs, Sperasoft, and Certain Affinity (with Max Hoberman) are already helping or have helped in Halo Infinite development. Some people speculate there are even more external teams contributing to the making of Halo Infinite. We know Joseph Staten is involved too as a project lead. The Zenimax acquisition by Microsoft should be concluded later next year, but I assume the Bethesda Studios are already at work for Xbox in the meantime. 343 had to rely on external studios many times, but now there are two more internal studios with experience in making first-person shooters: id Software and MachineGames.
>
> The Doom franchise and the Wolfenstein franchise are loved by the gaming community, so 343 being helped by id Software and MachineGames would not only make financial sense (because they’re internal studios and because more people working leads to shorter development time), but would also be a potential improvement in some areas of Halo Infinite, and would also be much needed huge positive news. And something I would love to happen. This is my take on the matter.
>
> I would like everybody in the forum to share their opinion too, what do you think id Software and MachineGames (keeping in mind their games) could bring to improve Halo Infinite.
>
> With that premise, I think it would be extremely cool of 343i to alleviate the drought of info and share some news with us regarding the people and the teams who are involved in making Halo Infinite. I’d like you to join me in asking 343 to share some news about the teams (external or internal) who are helping them out. How are they contributing? And will id Software and MachineGames be part of the development?

The Microsoft & Zenimax deal won’t officially be closed til 2021 some time. By then I’d imagine Halo infinite will be pretty close to done or maybe even completely wrapped for release by then.

So I’m going to say no, ID & MG won’t be part of Infinite’s development.
I imagine those studios are also working on their own projects too.

Would be nice to see other studios throw their hand into making Xbox titles like Halo but I can’t really see it happening as of yet.

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> > 2533274820909008;1:
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> The Microsoft & Zenimax deal won’t officially be closed til 2021 some time. By then I’d imagine Halo infinite will be pretty close to done or maybe even completely wrapped for release by then.
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> So I’m going to say no, ID & MG won’t be part of Infinite’s development.
> I imagine those studios are also working on their own projects too.
>
> Would be nice to see other studios throw their hand into making Xbox titles like Halo but I can’t really see it happening as of yet.

We do not know the details, the acquisition finalization happening in late 2021 doesn’t necessarily exclude the chance of collaboration prior to the closure. As far as I’m aware those studios are not busy working on anything atm. Apparently this acquisition has been in the talk between Xbox and Bethesda for years, so there’s still a chance. There’s still hope.

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They make their games on their id engine,so i don’t see how could they help much.They could in the future make some side Halo game though on their engine.
I wish Doom makers would make a survival horror like Flood game or like a Forerunner vs Flood prequel action game!

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I think the difference to outsourcing to Skybox games and Certain Affinity (very common in the gaming industry) and outsourcing to iD and MachineGames is Skybox and Certain Affinity are dedicated outsourcing studios, iD and MachineGames are AAA studios like 343. They’re making their own games.

Not that I wouldn’t mind seeing some collaboration, but the likelihood is minimal seeing as they are not dedicated outsourcing studios.

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Not likely. Just because Id and 343i make first-person shooters doesnt mean that id will assist with Infinite. Maybe Id could make a spin-off Halo game but not a mainstream installment

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Doubt it. As BreezyStarfish1stated, Machine Games and ID are AAA developers not outsourcing studios. Also ID is busy with the first part of the DOOM Eternal campaign expansion due in October. I imagine and hope Machine Games are on the next Wolfenstein. Who knows ? A collaboration is possible but I don’t see it this point.

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It’s remarkably unlikely. Even considering that the MS/Zenimax deal almost has to have been in the works for several months (at least), the idea of MachineGames and/or id being tapped to help on Infinite as a condition or part of that deal doesn’t seem likely. The biggest determinate factor as to why MS acquired Zenimax was the sheer variety of IP’s that came along with it.

Distracting id and MachineGames by immediately moving them onto a late-in-development Halo game that they’d have very little creative input on would be a waste of their time and talent. Worse, it would heighten the already-present risk of “too many cooks,” being involved in Infinite’s development, making for an obtuse and inconsistent product.

As others have said, Certain Affinity and Skybox are dedicated support studios. In the case of at least CA (not sure about Skybox), they also have precedent and experience working with the Halo IP and 343i. It is to be hoped that they provide additional resources to help round out and fulfill Infinite without distracting or changing it needlessly in the process.

It’s exciting to speculate about the future of Microsoft’s first party lineup and if/where any awesome cross-pollination could occur between the many cool IP’s and creators now under this umbrella. Halo: Infinite had likely been in the works for years before this deal was even dreamt up, though, and (unless it’s in even worse shape than it appears to be), it’s very nearly done. The support studios that’ve been brought on are likely supposed to maximize productivity in this last sprint of development. Adding too many collaborators to this kind of process risks making for a less, rather than more, productive and unilateral workforce.

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Probably a little late in the game for the main release. But if thier content creators happen to help with any dlc later down the road I’d welcome it. ID are masters of arena style shooters

10

From my understanding of the games industry, successful studios with their own AAA products generally are the ones asking smaller studios for an assist.

What I’m saying is ID software and Machinegames strike me as studios that would be looking for studios to help them make products, and I doubt they have the time to help other studios.

Like… Skybox doesn’t make “big” games alone. Sperasoft seems to function nearly entirely in an assisting capacity, and even Certain Affinity seems to function in this capacity.

So in summary the timeline of the purchase being completed (which others in the topic have discussed) and the fact that AAA game studios generally don’t assist other game studios leads me to believe that ID and MachineGames will provide no assistance with Halo Infinite.

11

I see a few nice arguments I can’t really argue with, we are in the realm of speculations after all. But for the sake of the argument and because I’m not done yet, let me keep going.

First I wanna add a few wrinkles in the argument: id and MG are AAA studios and not specialized in working on outsourced material. I don’t think not being a dedicated outsourcing studio is a big deal. How hard could it be for a AAA studio to assist in making a game instead of making a game from scratch? I’m not very well versed in the matter, but it doesn’t sound like they are two very different tasks. Every team in the studios would just keep doing their job, but on a different intellectual property. It’s not even necessary for the whole studio to help in making Halo Infinite. Maybe just a small team could be enough. I can’t be sure of that, but I’m going off on what seems logical to me.

Now let me add a few more points to my thesis:

If I’m not mistaken, Microsoft allows for sixteen-month contracts at most with external parties, so what happens if any of those outsourcing contracts expires before the game is finished and 343 still needs help? Keep in mind 343 didn’t expect to delay the release date of the game, they didn’t plan for outsourcing for that span of time, so there could actually be a chance of them running out of external studios assisting them. At that point id and MG would be their best option. Maybe their only option.

Xbox studios always share tech, cooperate, meet every other month, and give suggestions to each other. That’s one form of assistance id and MG could give 343. I’m not aware if the new Zenimax studios are attending or will be attending those meetings till the acquisition is complete, but If in fact 343 developers did meet with id Software developers and didn’t give any suggestions to each other, in a meeting created purposely to share advice, then I wouldn’t believe it.

343 hired a new project lead as late as of last month, so I can’t stand behind the argument that it would be too late or too far in the development cycle to let another team help them out in any capacity. We don’t even know when H:I will be released, it could be a year from now.

One last thought: Halo Infinite gameplay trailer received a lot of critics ranging from: “Halo Infinite is fine” to “Halo Infinite is disgusting”. It wouldn’t be unlikely for 343 to decide to change some big parts of the game in response to the (completely deserved imo) backlash. If that was the case, then, once again, id and MG would be two excellent studios up to the tasks of overhauling Halo Infinite. And still, be in time to release the game in 2021.

Did this change anybody’s mind? Do you still think a collaboration with id Software and MachineGames is completely unlikely?

12

That would be nice, much of the gameplay in the new Doom titles is vastly superior to what we’ve had in H4 and H5. I can only hope, but unlikely at this stage in the game as the game was supposed to be complete soon prior to the delay.