Halo Infinite has lost its project lead and a key developer mid-way through its development cycle. Both Tim Longo, an executive producer, and Mary Olson, the lead campaign producer, have left 343 industries. Halo Infinite was supposed to be the Xbox Scarlett’s flagship title, that that is now very much left in doubt. While Microsoft says there is nothing to worry about, this is all corporate talk. There’s a lot to worry about. Halo community manager John Junyszek took to Reddit to try to do some damage control and explain the situation, but, it doesn’t help matters. With Sony announcing that the PlayStation 5 will launch Holiday 2020 as well, the pressure is on Microsoft, even more, to put together a fantastic launch that can compete against gaming’s largest juggernaut.
“Tim’s role as Creative Director was to help make creative decisions around the design and direction of the game – whether it was the 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[d] 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.”
Will this hinder the Scarlett’s launch? Only time will tell, but it’s not a great sign that high-level developers are jumping ship right in the middle of the game’s development cycle. With Microsoft’s recent track record with regard to first-party titles, the launch of heir newest console could very well be a disaster.