343 Industries: Difference between revisions

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343 Industries, commonly shortened to 343i or 343, is a subsidiary of Microsoft Game Studios located in Redmond, 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.

Overview

After Bungie separated from Microsoft to become an independent studio in 2007, the intellectual property rights to the Halo franchise remained with Microsoft. In 2010, Bungie announced that Halo: Reach would be their last Halo game and that all future games in the series would be developed by 343 Industries.^[1] Since its establishment in 2007, several Bungie employees have transferred to 343, including Frank O'Connor and Chad Armstrong. In addition, 343 Industries has hired several of its employees from the Halo community, including Jeremy Patenaude and Jacob Benton of Ascendant Justice and Jessica Shea of Hawty McBloggy.

343's first project was Halo Waypoint, a downloadable Xbox LIVE application developed in conjunction with Certain Affinity and released in 2009. Its content is also available on the official Halo website at Xbox.com. Certain Affinity also created the maps in the Defiant Map Pack, the first map pack to be released by 343. Their current major projects include Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, developed in conjunction with Saber Interactive, and Halo 4, the first game in a new trilogy. In 2010, 343 released their first official podcast, entitled 343 Sparkast. After Bungie announced they would discontinue Halo-related Bungie Weekly Updates in July 7, 2011, 343 Industries started publishing the Halo Bulletin, a weekly writeup of Halo news.^[2]

Projects

Upcoming and ongoing

Halo Waypoint - An in-house production for Xbox LIVE.
The Forerunner Saga - A series of novels written by Greg Bear.
- Halo: Cryptum
Halo: Fall of Reach - A comic book adaptation of the novel of the same name, written by Brian Reed with art by Felix Ruiz.
Untitled Halo novel series - A post-war novel series written by Karen Traviss.
- Halo: Glasslands
Halo: Reach - Future content, including the Defiant Map Pack.
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary - Upcoming remake of Halo: Combat Evolved.
Halo 4 - Upcoming first game in a new trilogy.

Released

Halo Wars - A RTS game made in conjunction with Robot Entertainment.
Halo: Helljumper - A comic book series written by Peter David and drawn by Eric Nguyen.
Halo Encyclopedia - Edited by Tobias Buckell and published by DK Books.
Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe - A collection of short stories written by Eric Nylund, Tobias Buckell, Karen Traviss, and other critically acclaimed authors.
Halo: Blood Line - A comic book series written by Fred Van Lente and drawn by Francis Portela.
Halo Legends - A collection of anime shorts created in partnership with numerous Japanese studios.

Known employees

Frank O'Connor - Franchise Development Director, formerly an employee of Bungie ^[3]
Kevin Grace - Managing Editor ^[4]
Bonnie Ross – General Manager ^[5]
Jonathan Goff - Community Manager ^[5]
Dan Ayoub - Executive Producer ^[6]
Jeremy Patenaude – Content Creator (Formerly of AscendantJustice.com) ^[5]
Jacob Benton – Content Creator (Formerly of AscendantJustice.com)^[5]
Corrinne Yu - Principle Engine Programmer ^[7]
Justin Korthof - Community Manager ^[8]
Chad Armstrong - Designer, formerly an employee of Bungie ^[9]
Gabriel Garza - Artist ^[10]
Nicolas Bouvier - Artist ^[10]
Jessica Shea - Community Manager (Formerly of Hawty McBloggy)
David Ellis (formerly of 1up.com) - Content Producer ^[11]
Jason Pace - Creative Director for Halo Waypoint ^[12]
Sotaro Tojima - Audio Director^[13]
Vic DeLeon - Lead Mission Artist, formerly of Bungie ^[14]
Kenneth Scott - Senior Art Director ^[7]
Josh Holmes – Executive Producer ^[5]
Daniel Price - Senior Service Engineer ^[15]
Che Chou - Studio Producer ^[16]
Ryan Payton - Creative Lead ^[17]
David Wu - Chief Technology Officer ^[18]
Sally Huang - Producer ^[19]

Sources

[1] IGN: Halo: Reach Will Be Bungie's Last Halo Game

[2] Halo Waypoint: The Halo Bulletin 6/15/11

[3] Frank O'Connor's Business Card

[4] - Halo: Evolutions at Tobias Buckell Online

[Nelson-5] Major Nelson: #343: Interviews with members of 343 Industries about Halo and more

[6] Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Exclusive

[kotaku-7] Kotaku - It's Official MGS4 Producer Now Working on Halo

[8] Twitter.com - SixOkay

[9] NeoGaf: View Single Post - Halo: Reach |OT3| This Thread is Not a Natural Formation

[evo-10] Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe, About the artists

[11] 343 Industries Podcast #1

[12] Welcome to Halo Waypoint

[13] 343 Industries Twitter Account

[14] LinkedIn: Vic DeLeon

[15] LinkedIn: Daniel Price

[16] LinkedIn: Che Chou

[17] Twitter: Ryan Payton

[18] LinkedIn: David Wu

[19] LinkedIn: Sally Huang

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 ==Overview==
-After [[Bungie]] separated from [[Microsoft]] to become and independent studio in [[2007]], the intellectual property rights to the ''Halo'' franchise remained with Microsoft. In [[2010]], Bungie announced that ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' would be their last ''Halo'' game and that all future games in the series would be developed by 343 Industries.<ref>[http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/108/1086915p1.html '''IGN''': ''Halo: Reach Will Be Bungie's Last Halo Game'']</ref> Since its establishment in 2007, several Bungie employees have transferred to 343, including [[Frank O'Connor]] and [[Chad Armstrong]]. In addition, 343 Industries has hired several of its employees from the ''Halo'' community, including [[Jeremy Patenaude]] and [[Jacob Benton]] of [[Ascendant Justice (blog)|Ascendant Justice]] and [[Jessica Shea]] of Hawty McBloggy.
+After [[Bungie]] separated from [[Microsoft]] to become an independent studio in [[2007]], the intellectual property rights to the ''Halo'' franchise remained with Microsoft. In [[2010]], Bungie announced that ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' would be their last ''Halo'' game and that all future games in the series would be developed by 343 Industries.<ref>[http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/108/1086915p1.html '''IGN''': ''Halo: Reach Will Be Bungie's Last Halo Game'']</ref> Since its establishment in 2007, several Bungie employees have transferred to 343, including [[Frank O'Connor]] and [[Chad Armstrong]]. In addition, 343 Industries has hired several of its employees from the ''Halo'' community, including [[Jeremy Patenaude]] and [[Jacob Benton]] of [[Ascendant Justice (blog)|Ascendant Justice]] and [[Jessica Shea]] of Hawty McBloggy.
 's first project was [[Halo Waypoint]], a downloadable [[Xbox LIVE]] application developed in conjunction with [[Certain Affinity]] and released in [[2009]]. Its content is also available on the official ''Halo'' website at [[Xbox.com]]. Certain Affinity also created the maps in the [[Defiant Map Pack]], the first [[map pack]] to be released by 343. Their current major projects include ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary]]'', developed in conjunction with [[Wikipedia:Saber Interactive|Saber Interactive]], and ''[[Halo 4]]'', the first game in a new trilogy. In 2010, 343 released their first official podcast, entitled [[343 Sparkast]]. After Bungie announced they would discontinue ''Halo''-related [[Bungie Weekly Update]]s in [[2011|July 7, 2011]], 343 Industries started publishing the [[Halo Bulletin]], a weekly writeup of ''Halo'' news.<ref>[http://halo.xbox.com/en-us/news/headline/the-halo-bulletin-61511/73664 '''Halo Waypoint''': ''The Halo Bulletin 6/15/11'']</ref>