Much has been said regarding Halo Infinite’s development challenges, ranging from technical issues with the Slipspace Engine to an enormous scale that had to be scaled back in the end. However, it appears that 343 Industries was also prototyping systems for hero-based gameplay during Halo Infinite ‘s development.
“It would be crazy if it came out one day that a lot of the budget went to an Overwatch clone that they spent half of the dev time building before discovering it wasn’t working and were forced to make this version of Infinite in the last two years of development,” YouTuber Chris Ray Gun said. That would be insane.”
“That didn’t happen,” Justin Robey, a senior insights project manager who worked on the game, responded. “Well, I worked and shipped the game,” he added in a follow-up tweet. As a result, there is no leak. While working on the game, we prototyped a lot of stuff, which is never a waste of time. However, the way it’s being portrayed is completely false. Those design cycles were completed in the time given for the game.”
343 Industries had certainly prototyped hero-based systems for the shooter, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who later revealed on Reddit. “This was actually taken from my post from late last year — yes, 343 prototyped a hero-based system for a while.” I’m not sure when they transitioned to the current version (and the tweet referenced here appears to be mostly inaccurate), but I can confirm that they were working on several hero-based prototypes. Indeed, I believe both PVP and PVE prototypes were constructed.”
On Twitter, Schreier agreed with Robey that the narrative was being overblown “to the point of falsehood.” “Those who are selling this as a ‘this is why the game was damaged’ tale are exaggerating to the point of deception.” As I noted last year, the production issues were mostly due to a lack of a coherent vision, irritating tools, and the contractor system.” “Fixing systemic issues is incredibly hard,” he said when asked why 343 Industries didn’t modify or avoid these difficulties after three games “failed.” It’s not as simple as flipping a switch.”
Overall, this seems more like a concept for Halo Infinite (that was eventually prototyped) than an essential element that required a lot of resources and subsequently had to be eliminated or scaled back (like the rumored open world akin to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s). So put down your pitchforks.
Season 2: Lone Wolves, which will be released on May 3rd, will include two new maps, two entirely new modes – Last Spartan Standing and Land Grab – as well as familiar modes like King of the Hill. Certain Affinity is also reported to be working on a battle royale mode dubbed Tatanka, which could be revealed in June. In the meantime, stay tuned for additional information.
It would be crazy if it came out one day that a lot of the budget went to an Overwatch clone that they spent half of the dev time making before realizing it wasn't working and were forced to make this version of Infinite in the last two years of development.
That'd be nuts.
— Chris Ray Gun (@ChrisRGun) April 22, 2022