Halo Infinite Creative Director Tim Longo Left 343 Industries

Tim Longo has departed 343 Industries, creative director on Halo Infinite, Microsoft has confirmed in an official statement.

[majiebeast]

1 year before game release yeah thats not a good sign. Good luck to him tho.

[sushimama]

1.5 years before the game will release. You're right actually, It's not a good sign. Usually people in these types of positions will leave after the game has been released or gone gold. I wonder what really happened behind the scenes. It's strange to say the least.

*edit, yeah sorry I had changed my comment before you posted your reply. I agree with you

[majiebeast]

No a creative directors job is from beginning of dev till end of dev this is like if Cory Barlog left 1 year before gows release.

[harmny]

Amy Hennig left naughty dog 2 years before the release of U4. They even changed the entire game and it turned out great

[MasterCornholio]

@harmny

Yeah but that's Naughty Dog not 343. We know from experience that Naughty Dog is capable of making excellent games. 343 not so much they need to improve considerably to reach Naughty Dogs level.

Also Neil Druckman took over as creative director when Amy Henning left. And he's responsible for The Last of Us which is one of Naughty Dogs most heavily praised games. So it's not like Amy Hennings departure was that bad for them.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

@ Cornholio

I doubt you've played any of 343 Studio's games. Halo 4 & 5 are better than most FPS shooters out there, and that is a fact.

[SyntheticForm]

@ harmny and Master

Gotta be honest - 343 are no Naughty Dog - not even close. Naughty Dog are unmatched in narrative storytelling and game play. Halo 4 in my opinion was awful, and Halo 5's campaign was equally so. Thankfully it had some fun multiplayer.

Naughty Dog replaces great talent as it leaves - their standards are insanely high. I've read their job postings and even those are intense.

[DarXyde]

Reminds me a little about Bruce Straley leaving Naughty Dog. I'm genuinely curious to see how these projects will be impacted by the absence of key people. I don't play Halo, but I do have absolute confidence in Druckmann.

On the bright side, Straley and Longo can finally play games from their companies they didn't create. Imagine creating a masterpiece but never enjoying it the same way as the consumer. Seems like its own personal hell.

[mandingo]

I means in terms of story yeah ND is better but when it comes to multiplayer 343 have done a great job.

[MasterCornholio]

@Sophistocated

I actually played them with the MCC collection and with gamepass. And for me the best Halos were the ones made by Bungie. When it comes to the quality of 343s game they are not on the same level as Naughty Dog however Bungies Halos are.

But I think the problem I have with 343 Halos is that I don't care about multiplayer that much. I'm more of a single player guy and that's the weakest point of 343 Halos in my opinion.

@Mandingo

I agree with that completely. But like I said above since I'm more of a single player guy I tend to prefer Bungies Halos over 343s because the single player is just much better in then. 343s single player campaigns are poor in comparison.

[IamTylerDurden1]

@harmny

First, U4 was only 8 months into hard development when Hennig left and Halo Infinite is both longer in development and closer to release than U4 was.

Second, two incredibly accomplished leads in Neil Druckman and Bruce Straley, fresh off the success of TLoU, took over the position. Naughty Dog is arguably the most talented developer in the industry and while 343 is a very competent crew, they aren't on the same level, nor do they have a Druckman or Straley waiting in the wings.

Make no mistake, when Hennig left, it was a terrible sign. The direction of the game was uncertain and the studio was forced to scrap 8 months of hard work. U4 was eventually delayed an entire year and there were major concerns regarding the game. Luckily, Druckman and Straley were the perfect fit for the slightly darker final installment of Drake's Journey and the talent at Naughty Dog made a miraculous turnaround.

Nobody can predict the future, and U4 did turn out to be a success, but at the time Hennig left people were extremely worried. The saving grace, however, was the fact that people knew how capable Druckman and Straley were. You can spin it however you want, but it's never a good sign when the lead leaves a project in the middle of development. Obviously there is an issue with the direction of the game and regardless of the outcome, this is a bad sign.

[timotim]

From the article...

"The overall creative vision and production of the game remains led by Chris Lee, Studio Head of Halo Infinite."

[Italiano1234567]

This guy was in charge of the campaign wasnt he

[Fluttershy77]

I wonder why they're giving this fella, who is basically a nobody the credit of being a Creative Director.
I mean I'm sure is not like he though or imagine those powerful rhinos in that beautiful engaging trailer we saw such a long time ago.

[King_Noctis]

So doom and gloom? Its not like the studio have only one senior staff you know.

[Ricegum]

And the defense begins. Come on man, this isn't a good sign.

[King_Noctis]

What defense? I’m just stating the obvious. Its not like the game and the whole studio would collapse just because of one person. No company ever build their entire studio around one person. If he leave, then there’s always someone else up to the task. And not let forget that Halo 5, which was directed by Tim, was one of the weaker entry in the franchise.

Even MS stated that the game will go according to plan with or without this one person. And look at games like God of War. David Jaffe stepped down, yet the rebooted GoW still went to become one of the most successful GoW game ever.

[Fluttershy77]

And the two ladies? What are their names? Coco something and Mrs Farse? I can't remember!

[NarutoFox]

Hmm what's funny is that if Sony loss a senior staff for a popular exclusive Xbox fanboys would troll and say this isn't a good sign

[King_Noctis]

@Naruto

And what is more funny is the same thing was just said about Xbox and Halo Infinite. Sony or MS, it is childish to think a game or a studio will die just because someone leave the studio.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

King - if it was Corey, instead of Tim - you'd be all over it hahaha.

I hope the game - what's it's name again? - works out well.

But in the big picture - the smallest install base hopes that. No one really carse.

[annoyedgamer]

Yea because Halo 5 was so good..

[trooper_]

Yet the same things done whenever someone leaves Sony huh?

[DaDrunkenJester]

He was the creative director behind Halo 5... good riddance. As long as Chris Lee is still studio head for Infinite I'm okay.

[Fluttershy77]

Why? wasn't Halo 5 super awesome or something?

[DaDrunkenJester]

@Fluttershy77

Halo 5 had one of the worst Halo campaigns ever. It was a mess. The MP was good though and received a ton of support.

[Fluttershy77]

Yeah GOOD LUCK finding a job like that. Do you remember that big lady writer from Uncharted, Amy Schuster or something... She end up in the Devil's nest working on some nasty Devil's C

[Jin_Sakai]

The creative director leaving before the game is finished is bad news. There’s no spinning that.

[TK-66]

Except when said creative director is responsible for a shit show like Halo 5. If you define spinning as, not being all too worried about the departure of a creative director known for his involvement in the worst campaign in a Halo game, then you have a very strange way of defining words.

Guess we should be worried for ND atm with all their departures before the games are finished. There's no spinning that -_-

[AngainorG7X]

Relax same happened with Cyberpunk, Uncharted, Bioshock Infinite and more. Also Chris Lee is still in charge so..

[MasterCornholio]

@G7X

"Also Chris Lee is still in charge so.."

Chris Lee :"He was the Executive Producer on Halo 5: Guardians, and also senior Lead Producer on Halo 4. Lee was also involved in Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST. He assumed the role of director following Josh Holmes' departure in December of 2016."

Some people could see that as a bad thing based off the games that he was responsible for.

We will have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully they can bring Halo back to its Glory days.

[oasdada]

Games like these dont even need a creative director.. Halo always had a simple story in its games.. And yeah im not talking lore surrounding the game but actual story in these games re pretty thin

[timotim]

This is great news! He was suspect all along. Never liked his direction...that Star Wars copy he pulled for Halo 5 with the commands was old and tired. Looking forward to what Infinite has in store.

[sushimama]

This is the natural flow of the xbox fan. Example....
- Scalebound announced - this game looks amazing, can't wait to play it
- Scalebound canceled - the game looked terrible, glad they won't waste time on it
Tim Longo leaves 343 - great news, he was suspect all along. Never liked him. LMAO xD

[timotim]

Haha...let me tell you the "natural flow" of the non Xbox fan/fanboy...

"Halo 4 and 5 are the worse games in the franchise and don't come any where near touching the original trilogy." Well guess which Halo's Tim Longo was in change of...should I continue???

You can't have it both ways...its either he did a fantastic job with Halo 4 and 5 and thus his departure will be missed, or he indeed fit the bill of being in charge of 2 of the worse Halo games in the franchise and thus his departure is good news...which is it going to be???

For the record, I never said Scalebound looked amazing, though I was very interested in its development and was sad to see it canceled. Though the "Spartan commands" he ripped straight out of that Star Wars game he was also in charge of was weak and added nothing new. The only you can attempt to do is attack my stance, but without any reasons as to why he is a good creative director for the series, all you've managed to do is come off as argumentative for the console wars sake...

[King_Noctis]

Sony fan:
- Scalebound announced: The game sucks! The protagonist looks too emo and like a child.
- Scalebound cancelled: MS sucks! They should not have cancelled the game. How many games they have cancelled now?

I guess same thing could be said about both fanbases.

[ReadyPlayer22]

Do the trolls on this site ever read the articles? It's stated that the overall creativity was being handled by Chris Lee.

Besides, this is the guy that brought that God awful buddy AI and revive system to the campaign. Made that terrible campaign even more of a chore.

[DaDrunkenJester]

Yeah and funny how Scalebound always looked like crap and the edgy design was lame and the combat looked kinda weak.

*scalebound is cancelled* ah man it was my most anticipated xbox title, now I have no reason to buy an xbox one I guess.

[Kiwi66]

At least its better than those who say that a game is going to be rubbish before anything is known about it

[bluebenjamin]

Natural flow of Playstation fan hey look an Xbox article lets talk 💩 and try to convert them into Playstation fanboys lets bring up PC and GOW this has to Work I mean it worked on us 🙃

[chiefJohn117]

Lol PS fans said the opposite. Scalebound announced "oh look the main is another dude bro character. Games gonna be trash."

Scalebound Cancelled "man that game looked great it was the only game on Xbox I wanted to play was gonna buy an Xbox for it " lol

[trooper_]

Hilarious, isn’t it sushimama? XD

[rainslacker]

Wow....that spin.

The chances of a major deviation from what's already made is slim. Game is releasing in just over a year. Probably by March of next year, itll go into code lock where theyll be fixing up whats done, and making sure what needs to be there is there. A major change to any of the creative direction would take more than a few months to even plan, and depending on the extent of the changes, months or years to implement.

Plus, by now, the producer would have signed off on what they wanted.

Him leaving means nothing to the direction of this game

[timotim]

Haha...why does everything always have to be a debate or an argument? Why must it be spin at all and not just my opinion on a persons departure and perceived fit for the franchise? Why must every bit of news be turned into fodder for the console wars?

"The chances of a major deviation from what's already made is slim."

I agree wholeheartedly! So when you understand that while he (Tim Longo) was the main creative person behind Halo 4 and 5, yet the main creative person behind Halo Infinite (Chris Lee) is still with the company and still in his role, then I have to scratch my head as to why you think his departure is a bad sign. The person in charge of Halo Infinite development is still in charge and has been leading the team this whole time haha.

"Game is releasing in just over a year. Probably by March of next year,"

🤭🤭🤭 it's no way in hell that Infinite is going to make it to shelves by March of next year. Sounds like you need to do more research on the game. The trailer at this past E3 even said Holiday 2020.

[rainslacker]

I'd say you're history of spinning xbox news to be the culprit for my assumption.

And no, the code lock will probably come in March. I explained what code lock is, but there are probably more in depth explanations on line if you care to learn more. Never said the game was coming in march, and just over a year is beyond march

[timotim]

🤣🤣 But we find out that its actually YOU who is spinning here. Chris Lee is in charge of Infinite development, not Tim Longo...had you only ready the article, you would have known that! But I'm not surprised considering you think Infinite will be out by next March...i mean, you've already shown that you know very little of the game...yet its me who is trying to spin...😕

[DeadSilence]

Wtf, worst sign the Game is 1 year away only.

[timotim]

Again, from the article...

"The overall creative vision and production of the game remains led by Chris Lee, Studio Head of Halo Infinite."

Chris Lee has been heading the vision of Infinite this whole time, not Tim. Everytime they have shown off the game, it's been Chris Lee discussing it...it's his vision being iterated on.

[SyntheticForm]

You think they want to actually read the article? Of course they don't - because acknowledging what's written in the article means they can't use its seemingly negative headline for 'gloomy' purposes.

They'd rather spin the headline into gloom for this Microsoft project.

[Fluttershy77]

Ohhhh I think I got you there fella: you can't have it both ways...
1)"Chris Lee is our real Supreme Leader. Hail to you, Supreme Leader, you and your vision"
2) Oh these are great news, Longo did a terrible job on 4 (from your comment before.. I feel like Sherlock here)

If Longo was such a bump, why his departure is such a GREAT news!!?
You should edit that comment of yours and say something like: meh indifferent, he was a nobody, I tell you, the man, the real man with a vision is and has always been Chris

[timotim]

@Fluttershy

🥱🥱🥱 For starters, I never said or even implied that Chris Lee is a "superior leader"...I don't actually know that. I said I never liked Tim Longo's vision. We will have to wait and see what Chris Lee does with Infinite under his leadership...I can tell you based off the only two pieces of content we've seen from Infinite, Im already much more excited for it than anything I've seen from Halo 5 leading up to its launch. And that's not just me...you can go onto YouTube and see the reactions and read the comments on Infinite...fans are generally hype for it.

In terms of Longo's departure...I was speaking for ME PERSONALLY...not the Halo fanbase at large. It was the PS guys that came into this thread to tell me that Longo's departure was major...this is despite him not even being in charge of Infinite's development😆. Well let me flip the script on you...if Longo's departure is major, just by the mere fact that he departed...and now 343 is somehow a worse studio...then what does that say about all the devs who recently left Sony owned studios to join Xbox Game Studios?!?! Are these Sony owned studio also now worse off???
https://www.videogameschron...
https://www.windowscentral....

[Spurg]

For Halo 4 the creative director left a year early as well. It might the hoe 343i handles things and if their jobs is done then they don’t have any more insight on the project. Chris Lee is in the lead of the Halo infinite similar to how Josh Homles was for Halo 4.

[Fluttershy77]

Did the creative Director of Halo 5 also left early?
Maybe is like a thing, like you say, to bring luck.

What about the other ones? What are the names? Halo RTS 1 and 2 and Halo iOS
What happened with the Creative Directors in those? If all the directors left early I think you might be into something here...

[AK91]

Uh Oh

[Persian_Immortal]

Game companies especially large companies got a department called Risk Management. The Risk Management Team ensures they oversee any potential issues that could arise, from game development be it bad PR, losing programmers, leads or execs, or any order miscellaneous issues. Considering the size of the company 502 Employees Source = LinkedIn. They have likely already filled someone into the role utilizing the corporate ladder structure, games industry has large turnover as is, Naughty Dog has 518 employees Source= Linkedin and its clear 90% of that number have probably never worked on Crash/Jak and Daxter game and likely after TLOU part 2 wraps up, they will shrink down to 400 man or lower team, then bulk up for Pre-Production on their new I.P or whatever they make only time their should be a panic mode is if the entire skeleton crew(Programming Team) walks out but in some cases things can work out just fine case in point Uncharted 1 on PS3 half the team left during production and people walked out daily so its no reason to believe walk outs / turn over can lead to negative results sometimes its the opposite.

[Srhalo]

Who cares the game just looks like a crappy Destiny rip off.

[Zeegamereh]

Oh u seen gameplay ? No u didn’t loool

You guys aren’t Halo fans at all I know this for a fact because Chris lee was always the head of infinite not this guy 😂

[Kiwi66]

Given how Halo has been around longer than Destiny wouldn't that mean that Destiny is a rip-off of Halo

[bluebenjamin]

Nevermind him he probably thinks Tomb Raider ripped off Uncharted and GTA copied saints row

[MasterCornholio]

I mean Bungie did create Halo.

-shrugs-

So it's not surprising that Destiny shares similarities with a franchise that they've made.

@Blue

In some ways the new Tomb Raider did borrow some ideas from Uncharted. I think we can all agree that the rebooted Tomb Raider franchise plays a lot different than the classics.

Developers borrow ideas from each other all the time. This isn't anything new in the industry.

Also we can also say that both these franchises are inspired by Indiana Jones.

[bluebenjamin]

@Corn what did tomb raider take from Uncharted aka dude raider is it jumping climbing exploring idk 😐 and all honesty tomb raider watered itself down compared to how awesome it was in the ps one days we had vehicles and could lock that damn butler in the freezer lol 😂 good timez indeed

[chiefJohn117]

-_- can't tell if serious, joking or plain trolling

[Pickledpepper]

@srhalo
So you've seen gameplay of the campaign? Does it have multiple players all running around together in the campaign? Are there events?

Please let me know

[gangsta_red]

Could you please leave a link to where you have seen gameplay?

[Fluttershy77]

Longo story short

[Harambee]

You don't have to be negative...thats all. The guy left, its a bad thing alright but that doesn't guarantee 100% its gonna fail or what. Even if he remained to haters it would have failed and to fan boys a success. I don't see why people should have arguements at this stage. Lets just wait and see what comea out. As an xbox fan i know one thing for sure..its never really a good things when higher ups in the development of a game leaves before release. Only a few games succeed, most fail. I hope this turns out to be for the best....though reality is a bit harsh.

[SyntheticForm]

People leave, their duties are resumed, and development carries on like nothing happened. This has happened with big games before and they've turned out fine. Replacements are waiting in the wings - the team isn't just like 'Oh hey, you're on this now!' with a haphazard appointment. The choice is made with care and transition is seamless.

Whoever has succeeded this CD was ready and qualified. 343 aren't my favorite developer, but they're backed by Microsoft and they're not idiots.

[SpineSaw]

No one will no if there is more to this story unless someone from Microsoft, 343 or the guy in question talks but it is strange that this info is dumped on a Friday at the very end of day and come Monday this will be forgotten. It is odd.

[lellkay]

uh-oh

[scoot_n_loot]

Interestingggg. I'm sure at the end of the day it won't impact the game, but cant help but wonder what's going on behind the scenes.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

gl to infinte

[StormSailor]

Doomed to infinity hole

[RottenBeaver]

Hi I’m Tim Longo, now play my head like a bongo

[THC CELL]

Halo won't save xbox it's like cod they finished

[Pickledpepper]

Halo is far from finished, there is so much they could do to make it great again, it just needs the right people and let's hope they get it right this time.
There is such a massive following to this franchise, I mean when the 2nd game released the world had halo flu

[THC CELL]

Mate I remember working in game into 3am in the morning for halo trust me it's not what it used to be its ms life line and its not saving xbox

[Dark_Knightmare2]

Ok but wasn’t that like over ten plus years ago

[CH33S3]

Does this mean there'll be a delay? Does it matter if there's no release date?

It's like a riddle.

Anyway. Goodluck Tim.

[Kribwalker]

“The overall creative vision and production of the game remains led by Chris Lee, Studio Head of Halo Infinite.”

There won’t be a delay. He wasn’t running the show

[fitonito]

Holmes & Longo vs Lee & Bouvier (Sparth) - I'll take later's Halo vision anyday. For me personally Sparth is a keyperson for the vision along the new guy (I forgot his name, but is responsible for the trailers and "hope" concept.)

I wish Longo best for his future. He is great, but maybe not the best fit for Halo - maybe Apex or something on that line.

Still greatly missing and wondering about Payton's original vision for Halo 4.

[Max_Eckhardt]

Halo 4&5 sucked. Halo hasn’t been the same without Bungie.

[Pickledpepper]

Halo 4+5 we're not great games but I don't think the previous games success was all down to bunjie, just look what they have done with Destiny, them games suck as well

[MasterCornholio]

Bungie did make those games when they were owned by Microsoft so it's safe to say that the games were great because of them. I think the issue with Bungie is that ever since they became independent the studio changed alot. There was definitely a change in the staff so that in my opinion had an impact on their games.

[Pickledpepper]

I agree bunjie had a major roll in the first 3 halos and it could be why the game has not been the same since.
I am glad Tim has gone, maybe it's what halo needs, time will tell, he certainly hasn't helped the franchise.

[chiefJohn117]

Halo 4 had a great campaign (too short tho) and a bad MP (best weapon balance at that point tho and fun new game modes)
Halo 5 bad Campaign, best MP, best weapon balance by far

[THC CELL]

This 👍

[Pickledpepper]

D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F

[Saijahn]

Every game I can think of that had key figures leave before release has been a crap game. Andromeda and anthem comes to mind

[chiefJohn117]

I thought Frank O'Connor was head of 343

[coolbeans]

He's the Franchise Development Director there. Different set of responsibilities from being the Creative Director for a game.

[annoyedgamer]

I told people Microsoft was destroying this game. But some folks are to blinded by fanboyism. I was a huge Halo fan but sometimes you need to wake up and look around.

[Nodoze]

Trouble - game to be delayed.

[Prince-Ali]

Guys let's not actually be doom and gloom! ¬__¬... This may not look good but we dont actually know the internal situation so you can't really judge the outcome.. Amy Hennig left the Dog's 2 years before Uncharted 4 and ALTHOUGH IT IS CLEAR 343 AREN'T NAUGHTY DOG (let me make that clear), they dont have to be and that's fine. Halo Infinite should be in more than capable hands and im sure it's gonna be a very good game until proven otherwise. so people need to relax instead of talking spicy over nothing! ¬__¬

[S2Killinit]

Was that one any good?