Studio veteran and production lead Pierre Hintze will become studio head of 343i effective immediately, leading the studio’s on-going development of Halo Infinite and The Master Chief Collection, as well as future games. The senior leadership team will expand with new roles, including Bryan Koski who will become GM of Franchise, and Elizabeth Van Wyck, who will oversee business and operations.
Family emergency true or not. This needed to happen.
I do wish her well and hopefully when she is ready to return Xbox and or MS will find a suitable role for her.
just heard all the top management went through a big change as well. From jez corden at Windows Central.
“Studio veteran and production lead Pierre Hintze will become studio head of 343i effective immediately, leading the studio’s on-going development of Halo Infinite and The Master Chief Collection, as well as future games. The senior leadership team will expand with new roles, including Bryan Koski who will become GM of Franchise, and Elizabeth Van Wyck, who will oversee business and operations.”
With this I think the future of halo and infinite is bright. Not to say the person was bad they just didn’t have the right state of mind and view for halo… also anyone who lets a higher up blatantly lie to them resulting in a game being rushed out 2 years to early can’t be in the right state of mind or might have to much on their plate.
For now though remember big changes like this take time to show their fruits. So give it six months to a year before we start seeing the changes/improvements from this.
Whether it was actually a family emergency or not. It would be hard for any company to ignore the negative PR that Halo has recieved, and the negativity she has recieved has becoming increasingly toxic for Halo while she was attached to it.
If this turns out to just be a stunt to remove her, I feel like Xbox/Mircosoft couldn’t remove her outright without it looking bad for them as well. So they had her announce leaving of her own volition. They will either wait till the negativity has passed and place her someplace else in Microsoft, or they will have her “retire” with a golden parachute depending how high in the company she is considered.
Honestly, it’s always surprised me that Bonnie wasn’t ever singled out like some other franchises. It has tended to be 343 as a whole that took the flack as a studio rather than one individual.
If she was made to fall on her sword, I don’t think that will change peoples perceptions of 343. As I said, it’s the organisation as a whole; not who’s at the helm and setting the agenda.
Im sure theres is a lot of talnent inside 343, but not enought to halo, and maybe not enought to make a good direction to the franchise. The TV series have been a total shame to the lore and the chief, and the actual status of Infinite is crazy, the game is barely alive right now with no real content.
Whatever is going on with her family I hope the situation is resolved quickly and isn’t severe. Family is very important and that’s a serious manner.
As a person I respect her. As a studio head it’s the exact opposite. Her departure I think may finally steer 343 to at least a direction. It needed to happen and frankly should have been far sooner than it took now.
That gives a lot of hope. We are getting things in MCC that we have wanted in halo for a long time. so with them at the helm. maybe we will finally get elites back.
