Tim Longo, who was previously the creative director of Halo 5: Guardians and until recently, the creative director of Halo Infinite, has left 343 industries. He was part of the leadership shakeup 343 had a few weeks ago, in which he was moved from his position as creative director to a different one. Following this change in positions, Longo voluntarily left 343 Industries.
According to a statement from Microsoft, “Roles and responsibilities of various team members regularly evolve to meet the needs of a game, throughout development. We have recently had two changes to the Halo Infinite development team. Our Executive Producer, Mary Olson will now take charge of the Campaign team on Halo Infinite as the Lead Producer, utilizing her many years of experience at 343 to help craft a great campaign for fans.”
The secondary change was obviously Longo’s reassignment. Microsoft states that “creative vision and production of the game remains led by [Halo Infinite studio head] Chris Lee.” Allegedly there was no ill will regarding Longo’s exit from 343 Industries.
Prior to his position at 343, Longo worked with LucasArts, where he worked on a cancelled and unannounced first person shooter that had been codenamed First Assault. He had also held a few positions at Crystal Dynamics, and worked on several different aspects of the Tomb Raider series.
Naturally some may be concerned over what this change in leadership means for Halo Infinite, but it is important to keep in mind that such changes occur in the gaming industry fairly regularly. It doesn’t necessarily indicate that the creative direction of Infinite is going to change just because its creative director has changed. Cyberpunk 2077 lost its creative director, who had worked on all three Witcher games, back in January 2019, but the game still looked very true to its concept during E3.
Halo Infinite will be the sixth mainline entry in the Halo franchise, being released in 2020 for the Xbox One and PC while also being a launch title for the next gen Xbox, codenamed Project Scarlett. The boss of 343 Studios, Bonnie Ross, has described Infinite as a ‘spiritual reboot’ of the franchise, but as of yet no gameplay or specific details have been released. We don’t know when we’ll get more insight into the game, or how exactly it aims to hit that old school feel of the original Halo trilogy. Either way, hopefully it will carry on without issue as far as development is concerned, the loss of Longo notwithstanding.
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