Yeah I was going to say this isn't 343 anymore. Every aspect of leadership at the studio that has been there throughout the past 10+ years is gone. 

I'm not a huge fan of the studio name, but it represents that this is not the same studio.

Xbox fans complained about Genshin Impact not being on Xbox for years, I better see everyone become Gacha simps on launch day and blow their bank balances, become destitute. We even got it before Switch owners who have been promised it for years now, Lol.

Halfway through, have fun with the 2nd half

If the Halo CE Remake is legit then I would not be against them changing up the 2nd half of the game, especially Two Betrayals. It's tedious how the 2nd half is basically the 1st half but backwards.

Halo CE is the best first time experience, never forget the first step on the Halo, Halo 2 has the best story, Halo 3 is the best overall but a let down in the story department (Imo).

There's a glitch if you have the leadership perk that dialogue won't trigger, it was fixed but then reintroduced with this expansion, I'm putting it on hold for now until that glitch is fixed but then I'll be busy with other things so I might not play Shattered Space until December.

Where Oblivion?

I just think fans deserve a conclusion to the original storyline before they even think about a full reboot. They setup so much great story stuff for various characters between Halo Infinite and some of the recent novels, it would be a shame to never see payoff on any of that. 

I've never been against remakes from Xbox personally, I would love to see them remaking old stuff like OG Halo, Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fable, and more. More CoD remakes too, since they now own that. I just don't want only remakes, I like a good mix of new and old. 

Good to see Halo fans haven't changed, still whiny babies

Optional 3rd person mode is fine, I likely won't ever use it in PVP but it would be cool to use it in Firefight, especially to show off customisation, I also wouldn't mind it in Campaign although I'd likely still only use 1st person there.

Military contracts were probably keeping it alive, it was always geared towards industry/military.

Delta Halo is awesome.

Halo 2 is better than Halo CE.

Should have played it in Chronological Order!

343 Leadership

CVP, Head of 343 Industries

- Bonnie Ross (2007-2022)
- Pierre Hintze (2022-Current)

Pierre is known as the guy who "fixed" TMCC but it of course was a team effort. He joined 343i in 2018 as Head of Publishing in their secondary team working with external partners, the primary team being the mainline titles, Pierre was tasked with leading the Master Chief Collection repair efforts which he did so brilliantly, TMCC before 2018 was an absolute mess, since Pierre took over it was updated massively and not only that, added more content than was ever promised. Pierre's expertise are mostly focused in production/producer as well.

Franchise Development Director

- Frank O'Connor (2008-2023)
- Corrine Robinson (2023-Current)

Frankie was essentially known as the 2nd in charge of 343i behind Bonnie Ross.

Head of Transmedia and Entertainment

- Kiki Wolfkill (2015-2023)

I'm unsure who replaced her or if she simply moved outside of 343i, I have previously speculated that maybe the whole Transmedia team was moved outside of 343i to be less of a distraction for Pierre, Kiki was essentially the 3rd pillar of 343i back in the day.

General Manager (New)

- Bryan Koski (2022-Current)

Technically Bonnie Ross was Studio Head, CVP, General Manager, etc. Since she left, Pierre decided to split her roles up.

Chief Operating Officer (New)

- Elizabeth Van Wyck (2022-Current)

This was another role in which Pierre decided to split up instead of one person being in charge of everything.

Studio Design Director

- Max Szlagor (2023-Current)

*Unsure if this is a new role or not, 343 had Live Design Director, Multiplayer Design Director and Narrative Design Director but I can't find a "Studio Design Director" listed in Halo 5 or Halo Infinite credits, it could be that the name was simply changed or maybe this is Chris Lee's role but with a slight name change? Studio Director > Studio Design Director, are they the same thing?

Max comes from the Publishing team too (like Pierre) and given a lot of credit for positively changing MCC from the state it was in after he joined the team starting in 2017-2018.

Studio Director/Head of FPS Development

- Chris Lee (2016-2020)

Unsure who has replaced him, I would speculate either Max Szlagor or Pierre have absorbed his role.

Head of Design

- Jerry Hook (Halo Infinite-2022)

Lead Game Designer

- Dan Gniady (2024-Current)

Did Dan replace Jerry Hook? Lead Game Designer and Head of Design sound like the same thing but I've listed them separate to be safe.

Multiplayer Creative Director

- Tom French (Left 2022)

Can't find his replacement yet.

Lead Multiplayer Designer

- Andrew Witts (Halo Infinite-2022)

Can't find his replacement yet.

Forge Lead

- Tom French (Halo 5 Guardians)
- Michael Schorr (Halo Infinite-Current)

Head of Engineering

- David Berger (2007-2022)

Can't find his replacement, I assume part of his removal was down to swapping to Unreal Engine.

Art Director

- Nicolas Bouvier (2014-2022
- Chris Matthews (2022-Current)

Cinematic Director

- Josh Daniels (2024-Current)

Unsure who the previous Cinematic Director was, Lol.

Chief of Staff

- Rob Semsey (2017-2022)
- Melissa Boone (2022-Current)

Rob Semsey is still at 343i but he is now Director of Communications.

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This isn't an extensive list and there have also been changes outside of Pierre's control like the 100+ layoffs, the Campaign team was essentially gutted, the leadership team has completely changed, I'm not sure what more people could want, they wanted change and they got it, at this point it is essentially a new studio, with a new leadership team, a new direction and half the core team will have to be staffed back up after the layoffs. Unless people believe in curses and think the studio itself is cursed then I don't get people not giving them a chance to prove themselves.

I don't believe you can objectively say this is still the same old 343i. Give Pierre time to cook on something on his making, in the two years he has been saddled with Halo Infinite which was in a mess for post-launch and slapped round the face with layoffs, largely not his fault and the fault of previous management, in those two years he has seemingly came up with a plan, changed the studios approach to development, streamlined the studio, set them up on Unreal Engine and created a prototype while continuing to support Halo Infinite.

I believe almost the whole leadership changed? Also, the fact that they are moving on from their own engine and moving to Unreal, shows that they are willing to really do things differently IMO. 

I don't know. I think this is good. 

Remaking Halo CE would likely be a way to get everyone up to speed on Halo on Unreal Engine, it would be less risky than diving into a new title straight the way on a completely new engine, it would be easier to achieve as Halo CE has already been recently remastered (Halo 3 is now the most outdated) and remaking Halo 2 would be a strange choice.

All of Halo CE is already done so it's just a case of transitioning it over to Unreal Engine and seeing how it feels, developers can learn from it as well. It'd be similar to Coalition starting with remastering Gears of War instead of jumping straight into Gears 4, this could be a good test bed for the new team. Of course, they could change stuff too, Halo CE Remaster wasn't well received by some Halo diehards for certain changes to the art and atmosphere.

Or this Halo CE Remake rumour could simply be bullshit, I would not be surprised if insiders saw that Halo CE Chief model in the Unreal Engine footage and jumped to the conclusion of a Halo CE Remake is happening, it wouldn't be the first time insiders have jumped to conclusions, I'm leaning more towards that is what has happened here now because that is the CE Chief model, but then again, it could be the CE Chief model because they're doing a Halo CE Remake, Lol.

They definitely are, despite the slowness of Square Enix, Japanese Xbox support is very strong lately.

Loved everything I read here.

I think Pierre said this isn't a completely blank slate. He said that Bungie is Chapter 1, 343 is Chapter 2 and Halo Studios is Chapter 3, Chapter 1-2 wasn't a reboot, it's a turning of the page and into a new chapter, that doesn't mean reboot.

Considering they've already been working on next UE-based Halo for quite some time as we see from the footage, delivering new Halo game in 2026 alongside next-gen Xbox launch seems doable. 25th anniversary of Xbox. 25th anniversary of Halo. Would be cool if they pull this off.

343 wasn't using old engine. That's factually incorrect. Xbox poured millions in R&D for Slipspace engine and it was a totally new engine built from ground up. That's why I understand why switch to UE is seen as a bit of controversial move. Slipspace tanked millions and now it's gone.

We all know Genshin is not on Switch just because Switch can't run it.

Military contracts are still there and MS will continue to invest in HoloLens for military. It's just consumer version that is getting cut

Whenever a developer calls something a "new" engine, it's almost always just the old engine revamped, likewise with Creation Engine, Bungie's Tiger Engine was massively revamped for Destiny 2 cause it ran like shit for Destiny 1 but Tiger Engine was also just an overhauled version of BLAM! Engine. Heck even Unreal Engine 5 is largely just an overhauled version of Unreal Engine 4.

Next to no developer when they say "new engine" actually mean "we completely dumped ever last bit of the last engine and started entirely from scratch" Slipspace may have went further than others, it is hugely overhauled but at its core it is still BLAM! Engine. They further confirm this in the interview posted by G2 where they speak about Slipspace having 25+ year old components.

Also given Halo Infinite's rocky development, I would not be surprised if the goal they set out for Slipspace was hugely scaled back, they probably had plans to overhaul it even further than what it currently is but failed to achieve those goals, so I'd not be surprised if there's more outdated "BLAM!" than what we think. Bungie had the same issue, they tried to hugely overhaul BLAM for Destiny 1 and called it Tiger Engine but it caused huge development issues to which they once again had to massively overhaul the engine for Destiny 2.

343 seem to be skipping the "lets try a 2nd massive overhaul" and instead jumping to Unreal Engine.