A few months back, Creative Director at 343 Tim Longo departed the team. There was no reason given, but when a lead on a project leaves it can be a little suspicious.
Recently, Mary Olson, Executive Producer on Infinite, left the team as well.
This lead to a lot of “concern” about what was happening at 343 and what this meant for Infinite.
On reddit , 343 CM John Junyszek clarified a few points about the departures.
In a comment on a thread regarding the departures he stated…
“Hey all – I wanted to jump in and clarify what Tim & Mary’s roles were at the studio, because there seems to be quite a bit of confusion here. Before that happens though, I’d like to reassure everyone that the entire Halo Infinite team is rallying behind the game and is working hard to make sure we can execute on its vision.
Tim’s role as Creative Director was to help make creative decisions around the design and direction of the game – whether it was campaign, multiplayer, etc. Mary’s role as an Executive Producer and then Lead Producer on Campaign was to help drive the game to its completion for our holiday 2020 release date – with the latter specifically focusing on campaign deliverables.
Unfortunately the thread’s title saying, “He was replace with Mary Olson and she also left,” is far from accurate. It implies that Mary took over creative control of the entire game, didn’t like what she saw, and then decided to leave. If that’s what actually happened, I could totally understand getting worried – but that isn’t the case, as she was a Lead Producer and not a new Creative Director.”
There’s more at the link if you want even more detail, but essentially he is saying that the team is still connected on one vision for Infinite, and that the two leads leaving are not connected.
This could just be PR spin. But I also think commenting on this situation could be a good thing. If things were truly as bad as it might look from the outside, then maybe they would have not said anything.
Having a community manager comment on a reddit thread doesn’t feel like something 343 would do if Infinite was a disaster.
I think all Halo fans want Infinite to be a good game, and 343 has a lot of pressure on them.Releasing a dud could be a disaster for Xbox, so I’m sure that 343 knows they need to deliver.
It’s been 4 years since we have seen any new Halo footage, and the wait can feel excruciating. I just hope that when they are ready to show the game, it’s what everyone hopes for.
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