Halo boss Bonnie Ross, who heads up developer 343 Industries, has spoken candidly about the transition from Bungie to Microsoft and some of the stumbles along the way. Speaking to VentureBeat in an interview from December that we were recently made aware of, Ross said 343 “made some mistakes along the way,” and that overall, taking over the development reigns from Bungie has been a “very humbling experience.”
She didn’t mention any specific struggles by name, but no doubt the launch challenges for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which 343 previously referred to as a “black eye” for the franchise, are among the “mistakes” that Ross is talking about.
Ross went on to say that 343 not only considers what’s best for the Halo franchise as a universe, but also how the studio interacts with and responds to fans. Halo as a universe belongs to the fans as much as it does to 343 itself, Ross said.
“The whole team looks at this as not just our universe. It’s the fans’ universe,” she said. “How are we doing right by the fans? How are we doing right by the franchise? It is a part of our culture, this precious, precious world, and we’re responsible for taking care of it. And we want to do it right.”
Indeed, 343 has demonstrated a willingness to do right by Halo’s fans, one example being the team’s ongoing commitment to expanding and improving upon Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
Also in the interview, Ross talked about how there are countless more storytelling opportunities within the Halo universe. As fans may know, Halo 1, 2, and 3 take place over a period of time of only three months. As such, Ross said she’s excited about how many more stories there are to tell in the Halo universe.
“The fictional universe is huge. I looked at Halo as a universe, which is the most important character,” she said. “We spent a ton of time in the early days of 343 just expanding the canvas, or framing the world in which we could tell stories and making it larger, adding more characters such that we could tell stories over the next two decades.”
“I feel like it’s such a large world and universe and there’s so much stuff we can we can do so I kind of I have my dream job,” she added. “I feel like there’s so much more work to do and super excited about all the things we’re doing going forward.”
Some of Halo’s upcoming projects include the new Xbox One and PC game, Halo Infinite, as well as the TV show. “There’s a lot more Halo stories to tell. It’s such an amazing universe,” Ross said.
Ross will be honoured as the latest inductee to the AIAS Hall of Fame at the D.I.C.E. Awards next month in Las Vegas.