I love this (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Sunday, October 23, 2022, 13:25 (762 days ago) @ Schooly D

By contrast, 343 is just another department in the giant Microsoft corporate blob and suffers from many of the defects that come from being another department in the giant Microsoft corporate blob: lack of ownership, frequent use of contractors, and institutional largesse. It was created to turn the Halo franchise into the next Star Wars and print money, not to create super slick, killer games and deliver them on schedule. And by that measure it's been a smashing success. Cry about bloom or season passes or battle passes or whatever to someone who cares.

Yes and no. I saw a video a few weeks ago by Chris Ray Gun I think?, and he correctly pointed out that:

-Lots of people on the 343 team really love Halo.
-Halo Infinite was mechanically quite good.
-The leadership didn't know wtf they were doing

His assessment was that almost entirely down to the switch to, and inability to keep up with the live service model for games these days. Which seems reasonable; 343 have themselves said many things were cut or put on the back burner to better allocate resources, and what better place to allocate resources than the shit in the game that is actually what makes you money?

It's entirely possible that with good leadership, no free to play live service bullshit, and a lack of pressure, that something good could come out of 343.