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Revision as of 10:43, December 9, 2023

This article is about the game development company. For other uses of the term, see 343 (disambiguation).
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343 Industries logo (transparent black).png

343 Industries is a subsidiary of Xbox Game Studios located in Kirkland, Washington. It is tasked with overseeing the Halo franchise and creating new properties for the series. The team's name is a reference to 343 Guilty Spark, the monitor of Installation 04.

History

Origin

Before the formation of 343 Industries in 2007, the Microsoft Game Studios Franchise Development Group (MGSFDG) was responsible for expanding Microsoft's video game franchises. A prominent example of their contribution to the Halo franchise would be their arrangement with publishers Ballantine Books and Tor Books to publish a number of Halo novels over the years.[1][2]

Establishment

Following the end of partnership between Bungie and Microsoft in 2007, Microsoft sought to form a first-party studio from its internal development group to oversee the future development of the Halo franchise; thus, 343 Industries was established.[3] A small number of Bungie employees transferred to 343, notably Frank O'Connor and Chad Armstrong. In addition, several members of the new studio were hired from the Halo fan community, including Jeremy Patenaude and Jacob Benton of Ascendant Justice and later Jeff "GrimBrotherOne" Easterling.

Projects and partnerships

343's first project was Halo Waypoint, a downloadable Xbox LIVE application developed in conjunction with Certain Affinity and released in 2009. Waypoint is also accessible via the official Halo website.[4] Certain Affinity also created the maps in the Defiant Map Pack, the first map pack to be released by 343, and has since worked with 343 Industries on several projects.

In 2010, 343 released the first episode of their official podcast. After Bungie announced they would discontinue Halo-related Bungie Weekly Updates on July 7, 2011, 343 Industries started publishing the Halo Bulletin, a weekly writeup of Halo news.[5]

343 Industries often works with outside companies to produce content; these include ONE and MoreFrames, who created several motion comics based on Halo: Evolutions stories, as well as Sequence, who have worked on the terminal videos in 343's game releases as well as Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series. 343 Industries' first game release, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, was developed in conjunction with Saber Interactive and released in 2011. Saber Interactive also worked on Halo 2: Anniversary, a similar remastering of Halo 2 released as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection in 2014. The top-down shooters Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Spartan Strike were co-developed with Vanguard Games, while Halo Wars 2 was co-developed with Creative Assembly. Blur Studio created the CGI cinematics for Halo 2 Anniversary and Halo Wars 2, while Axis Animation produced those for Spartan Ops and Halo 5: Guardians. The tabletop games Halo: Fleet Battles and Halo: Ground Command were co-developed with Spartan Games.

Reclaimer Saga

343's first major in-studio game project was Halo 4, the first game in the Reclaimer Saga, a new series of games and other media.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection was the first Halo release on the Xbox One console, marking the onset of a phase of the series known as "The Journey". This multimedia project would encompass a number of works, including the digital series Halo: Nightfall, which would tie into the next major game in the series, Halo 5: Guardians.[6] The Halo Channel was introduced as a next-generation replacement for Halo Waypoint on the Xbox One,[7] while Halo: The Television Series would release on Paramount+ on March 2022.

Universe development and storytelling

Although Halo "expanded universe" fiction has always shared the same continuity as the games, under Bungie's watch material from outside the games was generally regarded as ancillary and was rarely intertwined with the games in a significant way; references to the novels, for instance, rarely amounted to more than throwaway lines. This was in part due to a disconnect between Bungie and Microsoft's Franchise Development Group, who were largely responsible for the creation of secondary media at the time.[8] An effort was made to keep different pieces of media as their own, self-contained "bubbles," so that they would not have a significant impact on other stories. For example, Frank O'Connor stated that the story of Halo Wars effectively exists in a bubble, having little bearing on the Halo story at large. According to O'Connor, this approach was "safer" from a development perspective, but it made many pieces of fiction seem extraneous or "disposable," as they had no crucial impact on one another.[9]

Circa 2008, however, 343 Industries decided that all future media they released would be more heavily interconnected. This included further integrating the fiction of the games and the novels into a seamless whole, with different pieces of media complementing one another in meaningful ways. Even though the main game series is still the primary focus of the studio, all other fiction has been stated to have a resonant impact on the games' stories in a way unlike before. For example, the novels of the Kilo-Five Trilogy and The Forerunner Saga have direct connections to the story of Halo 4.[9] 343i also sought to establish more characters to tell stories with in different parts of the Halo universe, with studio head Bonnie Ross stating that the previous approach of killing characters at the end of games made it more difficult to tell connected stories.[10]

By 2016, 343 Industries had come to deem the stories of their past games overly complex and decided that in the future, the Halo games would have "simpler" narratives while secondary media would be used to tell deeper stories,[10] with individual narratives being kept in their own "swimlanes".[11] According to Bonnie Ross, "while we love our transmedia, sometimes I do think we do tell a little bit too much story in our games; you know when you have a gun and then you have aliens shooting at you, it is kind of hard to digest a lot of story." Ross cited Halo Wars 2 as an example of a game story that followed the studio's new approach.[10]

Studio mythos

343 Industries has built up a mythos of in-jokes related to Unicorns, which is referenced in the background of the FOTUS armor permutation. There is also a tongue-in-cheek in-universe counterpart of the studio itself, named the "434 Combat Readiness Lab".[12][13] 343 Industries also has a in-universe company with the same name.

Projects

Upcoming and ongoing

Released

Discontinued

  • Halo Channel - A former "next-generation" hub of Halo multimedia.

Known employees

  • Bonnie Ross – General Manager [15]
  • Frank O'Connor - Franchise Development Director, formerly an employee of Bungie [16]
  • Kevin Grace - Managing Editor [17]
  • Jeremy Patenaude – Content Creator (Formerly of AscendantJustice.com) [15]
  • Gabriel Garza - Artist [18]
  • Nicolas Bouvier - Senior Art Director[19]
  • David Ellis (formerly of 1up.com) - Content Producer [20]
  • Jason Pace - Creative Director for Halo Waypoint [21]
  • Kenneth Peters - Senior Franchise Writer[22]
  • Joseph Staten - Halo Infinite's campaign project lead[23], later promoted to Head of Creative[24]
  • Sotaro Tojima - Audio Director[25]
  • Kenneth Scott - Visual Design Consultant[19]
  • Kevin Franklin - Design Director.[26]
  • Brian Reed - Lead Writer, formerly of Marvel Comics[27]
  • Daniel Price - Senior Service Engineer [28]
  • David Wu - Chief Technology Officer [29]
  • Sally Huang - Producer [30]
  • Chris Buckley - Graphic Designer
  • Kiki Wolfkill - Executive Producer and Head of Transmedia[31]
  • Neill Harrison - Art Manager [31]
  • Brad Welch - Lead Designer [31]
  • Tom French - Multiplayer Director[32]
  • Maggie Oh - Senior Technical Artist[33]
  • RJ Ranola - Environment Artist[33]
  • Patrick Gillette - Gameplay Animator[33]
  • Kathy Gehrig - Associate Producer[33]
  • Lani Blazier - Franchise Creative Producer[33]
  • Nicole Makila - Producer[33]
  • Hoop Somuah - Senior SDE[33]
  • CJ Markham - Motion Capture Supervisor[33]
  • Jeff Easterling - Writer
  • Josh Dean - Senior Lighting Artist[34]
  • Nick Ardizzone - Narrative Designer and Yapyap's voice actor[35]
  • Darren Bacon - Lead Concept Artist[35]
  • Adam Wong - Senior Producer for Halo Transmedia.[36]
  • MacKay Clark - UI Artist.[37]
  • Dan Chosich - Creative Strategy and Narrative Experience Director
  • Matt Campbell - Narrative Animator
  • Paul Crocker - Associate Creative Director
  • Horia Dociu - Publishing Team's Art Director
  • Joel Yarger - Music Supervisor
  • Brian Jarrard - Community Director[38]
  • John Junyszek - Community Manager[39]
  • William "Pixelflare" Cameron - Marketing Designer.[40] Cover artist for Halo: Point of Light.
  • Riley Hastings - Esports Content Producer.[41]
  • Lace Yamamoto - Business Administrator.[42]
  • Brie Chin-Deyerle - Senior Gameplay Engineer.[43]
  • Leonard Holman - Senior Software Engineer.[44]
  • Andrew Witts - Lead Multiplayer Designer.[45]
  • Alex Bean - Multiplayer Designer.[46]
  • Irene Zhu - UX Designer.[47]
  • Bereket Kifle - Software Engineer Lead.[48]
  • Nina Marien - Program Manager.[49]
  • Aubra Moore - IT Engineering Manager.[50]
  • Erika Martinez - Game Editor Producer.[51]
  • Ani Shastry - Graphics Development Manager.[52]
  • Tahir "Tashi" Hasandjekic - Esports Lead.[53]
  • Sam "misplacedyank" Nylen - Community Manager.[54]
  • Paul Bertone - Technical Design Director

Former

  • Justin Korthof - Community Manager,[55] now working at Robot Entertainment.
  • Ryan Payton - Creative Lead;[56] Narrative Designer for Halo 4,[57] left in Summer 2011, now the founder of Camouflaj.
  • Armando Troisi - Narrative Designer, left in April 2013. Now working at Fathom Interactive.[57]
  • Jonathan Goff - Community Manager,[15] now working at Bungie.[58]
  • Kynan Pearson - Lead Multiplayer Level Designer,[33] left in June 2013.[59]
  • Jacob Benton – Content Creator (Formerly of AscendantJustice.com),[15] left in April 2013, now a designer at Bungie.[60]
  • Chad Armstrong - Designer, formerly an employee of Bungie,[61] now working at Crystal Dynamics.[62]
  • Scott Warner - Design Director. Worked at Visceral Games, before joining Ubisoft San Francisco.[63]
  • Christopher Schlerf - Senior Writer, left in November 2013.[64] Worked at BioWare[65] and Bungie before freelancing.[66]
  • Jessica Shea (Formerly of Hawty McBloggy)
  • Corrinne Yu - Principal Engine Programmer,[67] left in November 2013. Now working at Naughty Dog.
  • Paul Ehreth - Level Designer, left in September 2014.[68]
  • Vic DeLeon - Lead Mission Artist, formerly of Bungie.[69] Left in March 2, 2015.[70]
  • Joe Waters - Senior Software Developer,[33] he passed away on December 24, 2015.
  • Che Chou - Studio Producer.[71] Left on September 30, 2016.[72]
  • Morgan Lockhart - Narrative Designer.[73] Left in November 2016.
  • Josh Holmes - Executive Producer.[57] Left in December 2016.
  • Dan Ayoub - Executive Producer.[74] Left on May 11, 2017, and he's now working on Microsoft Studios's Mixed Reality department.[75]
  • Chris Haluke - Lead Campaign Designer. Left on May 18, 2017.[76]
  • Andy Dudynsky - Community Manager.[77] Left on May 30, 2018.[78]
  • Kazuma Jinnouchi - Music Supervisor/Composer.[79] Left on July 13, 2018.[80]
  • Lawrence Metten - Multiplayer Design Lead. Left on September 2018.[81]
  • Jeremy Cook - Halo Wars 2 Art Director.[35] Left on March 25, 2019.
  • Tim Longo - Halo 5: Guardians and Halo Infinite Creative Director.[82] Left on August 16, 2019.[83]
  • Mary Olson - Halo Infinite Creative Director. Left in October, 2019[84]
  • Chris Lee - Studio Head of FPS Game Development. Resigned from Halo Infinite's development on October 28, 2020.

Sources

  1. ^ Halo: Combat Evolved portal page: MGS Development Group Expands (archived page)
  2. ^ halo.bungie.org: Interview with Eric Nylund
  3. ^ IGN: Halo: Reach Will Be Bungie's Last Halo Game
  4. ^ Halo - Official Site
  5. ^ Halo Waypoint: The Halo Bulletin 6/15/11
  6. ^ Eurogamer: 343's master plan for Halo 5: Guardians
  7. ^ Halo Waypoint: Halo Channel Revealed at Gamescom
  8. ^ The Sci Fi Show: Episode 005: DC Reboot/Eric Trautmann
  9. ^ a b Game Informer: The Future Of Halo Wars And Halo's Expanded Universe
  10. ^ a b c YouTube - D.I.C.E Summit 2017 (Day 2) - IGN Live (presentation by Bonnie Ross)
  11. ^ Twitter: GrimBrotherOne
  12. ^ Halo Waypoint: Catalog Interaction (post 2964800)
  13. ^ Halo Waypoint: Official Halo: Nightfall DISCUSSION (post 2988810)
  14. ^ Tech Crunch - Ridley Scott Halo Feature Among Microsoft’s First Dozen Xbox Original Titles
  15. ^ a b c d Major Nelson: #343: Interviews with members of 343 Industries about Halo and more
  16. ^ flickr, Frank O'Connor's Business Card
  17. ^ Tobias Buckell Online, Halo: Evolutions
  18. ^ Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe, About the artists
  19. ^ a b IGN - Halo 4 Art Director Steps Down at 343 Industries
  20. ^ Halo Waypoint, 343 Industries Podcast #1
  21. ^ YouTube, Welcome to Halo Waypoint (Retrieved on Jun 1, 2020) [archive]
  22. ^ Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder 1/22/2016: Armory Amore
  23. ^ Halo Waypoint, "Familiar Facts," August 2020 (Retrieved on Aug 14, 2021) [archive]
  24. ^ Halo Waypoint, Inside Infinite - March 2021 (Retrieved on Aug 14, 2021) [archive]
  25. ^ Twitter, 343 Industries
  26. ^ Twitter, Kevin Franklin
  27. ^ Halo Waypoint, Dark Horse Announces Halo: Initiation
  28. ^ LinkedIn, Daniel Price
  29. ^ LinkedIn, David Wu
  30. ^ LinkedIn, Sally Huang
  31. ^ a b c Making Halo 4: First Look
  32. ^ Twitter, Tom French
  33. ^ a b c d e f g h i j YouTube: Working at 343 Industries (HD)
  34. ^ Artstation, Josh Dean
  35. ^ a b c Waypoint|Page=Canon Fodder #100: Sweet Centennial
  36. ^ Twitter, Adam Wong
  37. ^ Twitter, MacKay Clark
  38. ^ LinkedIn (Retrieved on Jun 8, 2021) [archive]
  39. ^ Twitter (Retrieved on Jun 8, 2021) [archive]
  40. ^ Twitter, Pixelflare
  41. ^ Twitter, Riley Hastings
  42. ^ 343 Industries, Employee Spotlight: Lace Yamamoto (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  43. ^ 343 Industries, Brie Chin-Deyerle: Engineering the Future (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  44. ^ 343 Industries, Employee Spotlight: Leonard Holman (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  45. ^ 343 Industries, Employee Spotlight: Andrew Witts (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  46. ^ 343 Industries, Employee Spotlight: Alex Bean (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  47. ^ 343 Industries, Employee Spotlight: Irene Zhu (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  48. ^ 343 Industries, Employee Spotlight: Bereket Kifle (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  49. ^ 343 Industries, Employee Spotlight: Nina Marien (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  50. ^ 343 Industries, Employee Spotlight: Aubra Moore (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  51. ^ 343 Industries, Employee Spotlight: Erika Martinez (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  52. ^ 343 Industries, Employee Spotlight: Ani Shastry (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  53. ^ Pure Xbox, Halo Infinite's First Esports Event Has Been Locked In (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  54. ^ LinkedIn, Sam Nylen (Retrieved on Oct 19, 2021) [archive]
  55. ^ Twitter, SixOkay
  56. ^ Twitter, Ryan Payton
  57. ^ a b c GameInformer: UPDATE: Halo 4 Loses Its Creative Director
  58. ^ Twitter, Jonathan Goff
  59. ^ Halo Waypoint, Farewell Friends
  60. ^ LinkedIn, Jacob Benton
  61. ^ NeoGaf: View Single Post - Halo: Reach |OT3| This Thread is Not a Natural Formation
  62. ^ https://twitter.com/Fuvfuxn
  63. ^ Twitter, Scott Warner
  64. ^ Twitter, Schlerf
  65. ^ BioWare, Introducing Some Dev Team Leads for the Next Mass Effect (Retrieved on Jun 1, 2020) [archive]
  66. ^ LinkedIn, Chris Schlerf
  67. ^ Eurogamer: Halo programmer Corrinne Yu joins Uncharted dev Naughty Dog
  68. ^ Twitter, Paul Ehreth
  69. ^ LinkedIn, Vic DeLeon
  70. ^ Twitter - Vic DeLeon
  71. ^ LinkedIn, Che Chou
  72. ^ Twitter, Che Chou
  73. ^ Halo Waypoint, Halo Community Update 7.7.15
  74. ^ Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Exclusive
  75. ^ Halo Waypoint, Community Update: Beach Battle
  76. ^ Twitter, Chris Haluke
  77. ^ Halo Waypoint, The Halo Bulletin: Your Journey Begins - 11/6/2014
  78. ^ Halo Waypoint, Thank You
  79. ^ Making Halo 4: Composing Worlds
  80. ^ Twitter, Kazuma Jinnouchi
  81. ^ Twitter, Lawrence Metten
  82. ^ Twitter, Tim Longo
  83. ^ Kotaku, Halo Infinite Creative Director Leaves Company
  84. ^ Windows Central, Halo Infinite Lead Producer Mary Olson departs 343 Industries and joins Midwinter Entertainment
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