Halo Studios

This article is about the game development company formerly known as 343 Industries. For other uses of the term, see 343 (disambiguation).

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Halo Studios
Company information
Date founded:	2007 (as 343 Industries) 2024 (renamed to Halo Studios)
Founder(s):	Bonnie Ross
Leader(s):	Pierre Hintze
Parent company:	Microsoft Xbox Game Studios
Headquarters:	Redmond, Washington, USA
Website:	www.halowaypoint.com
Development information
Halo titles developed:	Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Halo 4 Halo: Spartan Assault Halo: The Master Chief Collection Halo 2: Anniversary Halo: Spartan Strike Halo 5: Guardians Halo Wars 2 Halo: Fireteam Raven Halo Infinite

Halo Studios, formerly known as 343 Industries, is a subsidiary of Xbox Game Studios located in Redmond, Washington. It is tasked with overseeing the Halo franchise and creating new properties for the series.

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.

343 Industries' logo.

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 and based in Kirkland, Washington. The team's name is a reference to 343 Guilty Spark, the monitor of Installation 04. 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. 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.

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. In 2016, the studio was relocated to Redmond, Washington, enabling the 343 Industries team to collaborate more closely with other Microsoft divisions and leverage the resources of Microsoft's main campus. The former Bungie and 343 Industries office building at 434 Kirkland Way was later demolished in August of 2019.

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. The Halo Channel was introduced as a next-generation replacement for Halo Waypoint on the Xbox One, while Halo Infinite would release on December 2021, and Halo: The Television Series would release on Paramount+ on March 2022.

A New Dawn

"If you really break Halo down, there have been two very distinct chapters. Chapter 1 – Bungie. Chapter 2 – 343 Industries. Now, I think we have an audience which is hungry for more. So we're not just going to try improve the efficiency of development, but change the recipe of how we make Halo games. So, we start a new chapter today."

— Pierre Hintze on the studio's change of name

On October 6, 2024, during the Halo World Championship in Seattle, 343 Industries announced with a trailer that the studio would rebrand itself as Halo Studios alongside the initiation of Project Foundry, a multi-discipline research effort on what is required to build Halo in Unreal Engine 5, while also serving as a training tool for Halo's development process going forwards. It was also announced that multiple new Halo games are in development, and that Unreal Engine 5 would the standard engine for all future Halo games. The change to Unreal was made such that the studio would no longer be required to divide their attention between game development and upkeep for the games' engine, allowing games and updates to be developed and delivered to fans more quickly. This change would also allow the studio to bring in more industry talent without requiring them to be trained on the Slipspace Engine.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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, with individual narratives being kept in their own "swimlanes". 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.

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". 343 Industries also has a in-universe company with the same name.

Projects

Upcoming and ongoing

• Halo Waypoint - An in-house production for Xbox LIVE.
• Halo: Outpost Discovery - A tour focused on the Halo universe.
• Halo: Waypoint Chronicles - A compilation of short stories written by Alex Wakeford and Jeff Easterling.
• Halo: Parasite's Wake - A novel following Marvin Mobuto during the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.
• Halo: Campaign Evolved - A total remake of Halo: Combat Evolved in Unreal Engine.

Released

• Halo Wars - A real-time strategy game made in conjunction with Ensemble Studios and Robot Entertainment.
• Halo: Helljumper - A comic book series written by Peter David and drawn by Eric Nguyen.
• Halo Encyclopedia (2009 edition) - 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.
• Revised versions of Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, and Halo: First Strike.
• Halo: The Essential Visual Guide - A guidebook to the Halo universe published by DK Books.
• Online support for Halo: Reach - DLCs, stats and the Title Update.
• Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary - A remake of Halo: Combat Evolved, featuring several multiplayer maps for the Halo: Reach engine.
• The Forerunner Saga - A series of novels written by Greg Bear.
  • Halo: Cryptum
  • Halo: Primordium
  • Halo: Silentium
• Halo: Fall of Reach - A comic book adaptation of the novel of the same name, written by Brian Reed with art by Felix Ruiz.
• Kilo-Five Trilogy - A post-war novel series written by Karen Traviss.
  • Halo: Glasslands
  • Halo: The Thursday War
  • Halo: Mortal Dictata
• Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn - A live-action prequel miniseries.
• Reclaimer Saga
  • Halo 4 - The first game in the saga and a sequel to Halo 3.
  • Halo 5: Guardians - The first game exclusively for the Xbox One and the second game in the saga.
• Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide - A guidebook to the Halo 4 lore.
• Halo: Spartan Assault - A top down stick shooter for Windows 8 systems, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
• Halo: Initiation - A comic book series written by Brian Reed and drawn by Marco Castiello.
• Halo: Broken Circle - A novel written by John Shirley, following the start and the end of the Covenant.
• Halo: Nightfall - A live-action miniseries produced by Ridley Scott.
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection - A bundle of games for the Xbox One.
• Halo: Spartan Strike - A top-down shooter for Windows 8 platforms, Steam, and Apple devices.
• Halo: Hunters in the Dark - A novel by Peter David about a post-war mission to Installation 00.
• Halo: Saint's Testimony - A digital short novel by Frank O'Connor exploring the nature of AI.
• Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series - An animated adaptation of the novel of the same name, made by Sequence.
• Halo: Escalation - A comic book series written by Christopher Schlerf, Brian Reed, and Duffy Boudreau.
• Halo: Shadow of Intent - A digital short novel by Joseph Staten, following Rtas 'Vadum in a mission to stop a Covenant faction from eliminate the Sangheili species.
• Halo Mythos - A reference book of the Halo universe, detailing the events from the Forerunner era to post-Covenant War era.
• Halo 5: Forge - A port of Halo 5: Guardians' Forge mode to Windows 10.
• Halo: Fractures - A collection of short stories by various authors.
• Halo: Tales from Slipspace - A comic anthology regarded as a spiritual successor to the Halo Graphic Novel.
• Halo Wars 2 - A real-time strategy game for the Xbox One and Windows 10.
• Halo: Envoy - A novel written by Tobias Buckell.
• Halo: Warfleet - A technical manual of the Halo universe.
• Halo: Recruit - A VR experience for Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
• Halo: Legacy of Onyx - A novel written by Matt Forbeck.
• Halo: Rise of Atriox - A five-part comic series centered on Atriox, from his beginnings as a Covenant soldier to becoming the leader of the Banished.
• Halo: Fireteam Raven - An arcade game.
• Alpha-Nine series
  • Halo: New Blood - A novel by Matt Forbeck centering on Edward Buck and his recruitment in the SPARTAN-IV Program.
  • Halo: Bad Blood - An novel by Matt Forbeck focused on Alpha-Nine after the events of Halo 5: Guardians.
• The Ferrets series
  • Halo: Last Light - A novel by Troy Denning, featuring Detective Veta Lopis investigating a murder case on Gao while the UNSC is following a mysterious signal found on the planet.
  • Halo: Retribution - A novel by Troy Denning, sequel to Halo: Last Light, follows the Ferrets, now led by Veta Lopis, into solving the murder of Graselyn Tuwa and abduction of her family.
  • Halo: Divine Wind - A novel by Troy Denning, sequel to Halo: Shadows of Reach, following Veta and her Ferrets while they try to stop Castor and the Keepers of the One Freedom from activating the Halo Array.
• A Master Chief Story
  • Halo: Collateral Damage - A three-part comic series centered on Blue Team and his actions on Alpha Corvi II.
  • Halo: Silent Storm - A novel by Troy Denning, focused on SPARTAN-IIs' actions during Operation: SILENT STORM
  • Halo: Oblivion - A novel by Troy Denning, focused on Blue Team's actions during their operation on Netherop.
  • Halo: Shadows of Reach - A novel written by Troy Denning, focusing on Blue Team's return to Reach one year after the events of Halo 5: Guardians.
  • Halo: Edge of Dawn - A novel written by Kelly Gay, and part of the A Master Chief Story series, following the events of Halo Infinite, with Master Chief rebuilding the UNSC's presence and Jega 'Rdomnai's revenge on the Spartan.
• Battle Born series
  • Halo: Battle Born - A novel by Cassandra Rose Clarke focused on four teenagers at the beginning of the Battle of Meridian.
  • Halo: Meridian Divide - A novel by Cassandra Rose Clarke focused on Saskia, Dorian, Evie, and Victor returning to Meridian and recover an unknown Forerunner artifact.
• Rion Forge & Ace Of Spades series
  • Halo: Smoke and Shadow - A short novella written by Kelly Gay, starring Rion Forge in her mission to fing the UNSC Spirit of Fire.
  • Halo: Renegades - A novel by Kelly Gay centered on the Ace of Spades crew and the return of 343 Guilty Spark.
  • Halo: Point of Light - A novel by Kelly Gay focused on Spark's journey to fulfill the Librarian's task.
• Halo: Lone Wolf - A four-part comic series centered on Linda-058.
• Halo Infinite - A sequel to Halo 5: Guardians and a spiritual reboot of the franchise.
• Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition)
• Halo: The Rubicon Protocol - A novel prequel to Halo Infinite, that tells the story of several SPARTAN-IVs on Zeta Halo trying to stop the Banished.
• Halo: Outcasts - A novel following Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and Spartan Olympia Vale as they seek out a rumored ancient artifact capable of liberating their peoples from Cortana and the Created's rule.
• Halo: Epitaph - A novel following the Ur-Didact after the events of Halo 4 and Halo: Escalation's The Next 72 Hours arc.
• Halo: The Television Series - A two-season television series in partnership with Steven Spielberg and Paramount+.
• Halo: Empty Throne - A novel following the UNSC's attempts to steal the Domain from Cortana through an ancient access point on a seemingly insignificant human colony.
• Halo Infinite - The sequel to Halo 5: Guardians, and a spiritual reboot for the series.

Discontinued

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

Known employees

• Gabriel Garza - Artist
• Nicolas Bouvier - Senior Art Director
• David Ellis (formerly of 1up.com) - Content Producer
• Kenneth Peters - Senior Franchise Writer
• Joseph Staten - Halo Infinite's campaign project lead, later promoted to Head of Creative
• Sotaro Tojima - Audio Director
• Brian Reed - Lead Writer, formerly of Marvel Comics
• Daniel Price - Senior Service Engineer
• David Wu - Chief Technology Officer
• Kiki Wolfkill - Executive Producer and Head of Transmedia
• Brad Welch - Lead Designer
• Tom French - Multiplayer Director
• RJ Ranola - Environment Artist
• Patrick Gillette - Gameplay Animator
• Lani Blazier - Franchise Creative Producer
• Nicole Makila - Producer
• Hoop Somuah - Senior SDE
• CJ Markham - Motion Capture Supervisor
• Jeff Easterling - Writer
• Josh Dean - Senior Lighting Artist
• Matt Campbell - Narrative Animator
• Joel Yarger - Music Supervisor
• Brian Jarrard - Community Director
• John Junyszek - Community Manager
• William "Pixelflare" Cameron - Marketing Designer. Cover artist for Halo: Point of Light.
• Riley Hastings - Esports Content Producer.
• Lace Yamamoto - Business Administrator.
• Brie Chin-Deyerle - Senior Gameplay Engineer.
• Leonard Holman - Senior Software Engineer.
• Andrew Witts - Lead Multiplayer Designer.
• Alex Bean - Multiplayer Designer.
• Irene Zhu - UX Designer.
• Bereket Kifle - Software Engineer Lead.
• Nina Marien - Program Manager.
• Aubra Moore - IT Engineering Manager.
• Erika Martinez - Game Editor Producer.
• Ani Shastry - Graphics Development Manager.
• Tahir "Tashi" Hasandjekic - Esports Lead.
• Sam "misplacedyank" Nylen - Community Manager.
• Paul Bertone - Technical Design Director

Former 343 Staff

Prominent

• Bonnie Ross - General Manager/Studio Founder. (Left September 2022).
• Frank O'Connor - Franchise Development Director, formerly an employee of Bungie. (Left April 2023).
• Kevin Grace - Managing Editor and Franchise Manager; Senior Writer and Narrative Design Director for Halo Wars 2. (Left 2018); currently working at Mojang Studios.
• Jeremy Patenaude - Content Creator (Formerly of AscendantJustice.com) and Lead Writer. (Left 2023).

Other

• Justin Korthof - Community Manager, now working at Robot Entertainment.
• Ryan Payton - Creative Lead; Narrative Designer for Halo 4, left in Summer 2011, now the founder of Camouflaj.
• Jason Pace - Creative Director for Halo Waypoint. Left in June 2012.
• Armando Troisi - Narrative Designer, left in April 2013. Now working at Fathom Interactive.
• Jonathan Goff - Community Manager, now working at Bungie.
• Kynan Pearson - Lead Multiplayer Level Designer, left in June 2013.
• Jacob Benton - Content Creator (Formerly of AscendantJustice.com), left in April 2013, now a designer at Bungie.
• Chad Armstrong - Designer, formerly an employee of Bungie, now working at Crystal Dynamics.
• Scott Warner - Design Director. Worked at Visceral Games, before joining Ubisoft San Francisco.
• Christopher Schlerf - Senior Writer, left in November 2013. Worked at BioWare and Bungie before freelancing.
• Jessica Shea (Formerly of Hawty McBloggy)
• Maggie Oh - Senior Technical Artist. Left in October 2013.
• Corrinne Yu - Principal Engine Programmer, left in November 2013. Now working at Naughty Dog.
• Chris Buckley - Graphic Designer. Left in February 2014.
• Kathy Gehrig - Associate Producer. Left in February 2014.
• Sally Huang - Producer. Left in April 2014.
• Kenneth Scott - Visual Design Consultant. Left in May 2014.
• Paul Ehreth - Level Designer, left in September 2014.
• Vic DeLeon - Lead Mission Artist, formerly of Bungie. Left in March 2, 2015.
• Joe Waters - Senior Software Developer, he passed away on December 24, 2015.
• Kevin Franklin - Design Director. Left in February 2016.
• Che Chou - Studio Producer. Left on September 30, 2016.
• Morgan Lockhart - Narrative Designer. Left in November 2016.
• Josh Holmes - Executive Producer. Left in December 2016.
• Dan Ayoub - Executive Producer. Left on May 11, 2017, and he's now working on Microsoft Studios's Mixed Reality department.
• Chris Haluke - Lead Campaign Designer. Left on May 18, 2017.
• Andy Dudynsky - Community Manager. Left on May 30, 2018.
• Kazuma Jinnouchi - Music Supervisor/Composer. Left on July 13, 2018.
• Lawrence Metten - Multiplayer Design Lead. Left on September 2018.
• Jeremy Cook - Halo Wars 2 Art Director. Left on March 25, 2019.
• Tim Longo - Halo 5: Guardians and Halo Infinite Creative Director. Left on August 16, 2019.
• Mary Olson - Halo Infinite Creative Director. Left in October, 2019
• Nick Ardizzone - Narrative Designer and Yapyap's voice actor. Left in December 2019. Now working at Bungie.
• Adam Wong - Senior Producer for Halo Transmedia. Left in January 2020.
• MacKay Clark - UI Artist. Left in February 2020.
• Chris Lee - Studio Head of FPS Game Development. Resigned from Halo Infinite's development on October 28, 2020.
• Darren Bacon - Lead Concept Artist. Left in January 2022. Now working at Bungie.
• Paul Crocker - Associate Creative Director. Left in July 2022.
• Dan Chosich - Creative Strategy and Narrative Experience Director. Left in October 2022.
• Neill Harrison - Art Manager. Left in March 2023.
• Horia Dociu - Publishing Team's Art Director. Left in August 2023.