Although the new chapter of Master Chief’s story was unveiled in its entirety yesterday, we could have gotten more from 343 Industries.

A new report from Bloomberg sheds some light on the bumpy road ahead for Halo Infinite’s development. When we first saw the game, it looked like a full-fledged open-world game, and the article suggests that this was indeed 343 Industries’ original plan: they wanted to follow the example of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In Master Chief’s case, this would have meant that we would have had the chance to complete the missions in any order we wished.

This version of Halo Infinite was years in the making, but the Slipspace Engine, still based on the Bungie legacy, was ill-equipped for a full-blown open-world adventure. Then there were internal disputes and departures, which also hurt 343’s chances. The game finally reached a crisis point in the summer of 2019, and about two-thirds of the content for the new Halo was cut out to streamline it to a broader, linear design. But there were problems with that too: Halo Infinite was already behind schedule, and the 2020 gameplay demo showed disastrous results.

That’s when former Halo writer Joseph Staten came on board. The first step he took was arranging another delay with Microsoft to fix Halo Infinite technically. Staten also wrote a list of features he thought could help (e.g. an extensive system of operating bases, support marines), and in short, he was the one who put his foot down, said it couldn’t be done, and from there came the Prussian rigour, which has had its results, seeing the fair reviews.

But it also shows how big Nintendo has made a mess of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, for which a sequel is already in the pipeline…

Source: WCCFTech