Halo Studios in trouble again as disgruntled veteran hints at ‘ethics’ issues

Despite a name change and a switch to a new engine, the future of Halo Studios has been brought into question after another high profile exit.

Halo always used to be the tentpole franchise for Xbox, but ever since the IP swapped hands from Bungie to 343 Industries, its prestige has gradually faded away.

343 Industries has made some promising Halo games, most recently 2021’s Halo Infinite, but the studio has always struggled in the shadow of series creators of Bungie, both technically and creatively.

The studio has been hit with layoffs and staff exits since, then but things took an optimistic turn when 343 rebranded to Halo Studios and announced a shift to Unreal Engine 5 for the next wave of Halo titles. However, it seems there’s still major problems at the developer.

Glenn Israel, an art director at Halo Studios who has been working on the series for 17 years (starting at Bungie in 2008 as a senior concept artist), announced he has left the developer in an ominous post on LinkedIn.

‘As of today and after seventeen long years, I am officially no longer contributing to the Halo universe,’ he wrote. ‘There is little more I can say for the moment, though I intend to share this particular story in its entirety when it is absolutely safe to do so next year. In the meantime, I have a message for anyone and everyone who needs to hear it.

‘I know that the state of our industry seems dire, but never forget that you are *free to choose*. No illusion of security nor promise of wealth or fame or power is worth trading away your health, your dignity, your ethics or values – and no one can force you to. Stay strong, take evidence when necessary, and find where you belong.’

It’s an unusually foreboding post which clearly suggests Halo Studios is in some kind of turmoil, something which has been corroborated by reputable Halo insider Rebs Gaming.

In a video covering Israel’s exit, the YouTuber claims Halo Studios has ‘leadership issues’. However, his alleged sources haven’t yet allowed him to go into specifics.

Beyond Microsoft’s track record of mismanagement, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest there’s particular problems at Halo Studios. As pointed out in Rebs Gaming’s video, only one person – Donnie Taylor – out of the nine who worked on the art team for Halo Infinite still works at the studio today.

While this could be chalked down to shifting development teams between games, there has been other high profile exits of late. Last month, Halo Studios’ chief of staff, Melissa Boone, quietly departed the studio for a job at Riot Games.

Prior to this in July, an Engadget report claimed there was ‘a lot of tension’ at the studio, with one employee referring to a particularly troubled, unnamed project.

‘I don’t think anybody is really happy about the quality of the product right now,’ the unnamed employee said. ‘There’s been a lot of tension and pep talks trying to rally folks to ship.’

As confirmed last year, Halo Studios is working on multiple Halo games, with one strongly rumoured to be a remake of 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved. Recently, the team teased some kind of announcement for this month’s Halo World Championships.

Many former employees at 343 Industries, going back to 2023, have blamed Microsoft’s mismanagement as the reason for the studio’s problems. The Halo series specifically has had issues going back to at least 2014 and the troubled Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Whether these exits mean the next batch of Halo titles will suffer as a result remains to be seen, but it’s disconcerting that the same leadership issues still seem to be so prevalent over a decade later.

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