So I’ve been looking through the 343 company website (seperate to Halo Waypoint) and in particular the jobs listings and I’ve found a few nuggets that might provide a small glimpse of what they’re planning.
The elephant in the room:
Microtransactions will be back.
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“Design and deliver a AAA player investment experience that focuses on our fans and their desire to express their passion for our franchise (including but not limited to microtransactions)” - "8+ years working in a design capacity on at least 2+ shipped AAA titles (or live services) with a focus on Social and Microtransaction systems as a Lead Designer or higher"Live services actually comes up a few time. For those unfamiliar, “Live services” is the new name for “Games As A Service”. It’s basically the whole thing of keeping you engaged and playing (and paying) as much as possible, for as long as possible. That’s why they want this:
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A comprehensive understanding of player psychology and what drives them to return to an experience
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Experience developing systems that engage players after they put down their controllerAnd why they list this:
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Design and deliver a AAA social experience that fosters community - Design and deliver a AAA progression and engagement experience that ties into game features - Be able to adapt to the changing business and community needs that come along with being a live serviceA big part of that is constant and frequent updates/content drops, similar to Halo 5, which is what they’re asking for. And it’s also tying into another area:
Forge
“As a Lead Services Developer you will lead a small team to build services that manage and deliver both in-house curated content and user generated content. Keeping the game experience fresh and compelling by frequent delivery of new content is a key part of the next generation of Halo. Building a thriving community of content creators among our users and giving them the tools they need to build top quality content is a cornerstone of our future plans.”
There’s actually quite a strong focus on Forge and user generated content in the listings. They want upgrades, improved workflow, and they want Forge developers to “participate in Community-created content”. Also:
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Experience with other UGC tools (Doom Snapmap, Far Cry Arcade, Little Big Planet, etc.)Campaign/Big Levels
Quite a few of the current listings concern campaign. In particular, they want people with experience and interest in narrative focussed games.
There also seems to be an emphasis on large worlds/levels in what they want people to have experience in: -
Experience working closely with game design to build large worlds - World Design experience with current AAA RPGs or Action gamesThis could mean they’re going open world as many have assumed and the engine demo/website page seems to indicate, but it could also mean they simply want more large open levels, similar to “Halo” from the first game. People have been complaining about things seeming smaller in the more recent games.
The Cloud
They’re talking about that again.
“We are seeking talented, experienced developers with a variety of backgrounds who want to redefine the Halo experience through the application of modern cloud service technologies. The Halo Game Services team builds cloud services that drive many aspects of the game, including in-game economies and commerce, player statistics, user generated content, matchmaking, and game content management.”
Graphics
Obviously they’re looking for people with experience in developing high quality graphics. The part that will probably be of most interest to people is “If stunning 60 Hz 4k graphics gets you excited, this is the right job for you”.
PC
They’ve said future games will be on PC, and the listing show this plan hasn’t changed. They’re looking for people who have experience in anti-cheating measures for PC games.
Current and Next Gen
The listing talk about developing these things for current and future gen. Most of the talk about the new engine indicates that they’re looking long term with it, but these listings also confirm that they’re developing for current hardware as well.
Multiplayer
The current listings don’t have to many positions for the multiplayer teams, but there are enough mentions to show it’s still an important part, so there’s probably just no openings on the team at the moment.
That’s about it. I’m sure some people will overreact, some people will dismiss legitimate concerns and some people just won’t care.