Ex-343i Dev Says His Comment On Crunch Was Taken Out of Context For Halo Infinite

Earlier this week, the comments made by a former Halo Infinite dev were shared by several outlets online, but he has now clarified his earlier statement on crunch and more.

As we reported earlier, the ex-developer had made a video posted to the Chinese social media platform where he shared his experience working on the game. The video was over 15 minutes long yet a single comment on crunch made the headlines for most outlets suggesting that 343 Industries were overworking their employees.

The developer has now made another video posted to a Chinese social media platform that has clarified his stance on the earlier comments.

His comments were transcribed by a user on reddit and summarized by us as seen below.

• He was worried about his reputation in the industry and with 343 because of how the future employees will see him as a liability all because his sentences were taken out of context.
• He also suggests that his earlier video shouldn’t be taken as a source of news for Halo Infinite. He was just talking about his experience with a former employee and his time in the gaming industry.
• He had a good experience at 343 industries and not as bad as the media tried to portray with his comment on crunch. He worked there for 8 years.
• He mentioned having 343 baggage because he wanted to work on something new and he couldn’t work on new IPs at 343 (because they mostly work on Halo).
• According to his opinion, he believes that the game was overly ambitious. He doesn’t want to see people reacting negatively to the cut content comment because it is standard practice in the industry and every project usually has something cut from it.
• When he suggested that the game was not a masterpiece, it was merely his opinion that games get massively hyped with fans having unrealistic expectations when the game is trying to do something new in the series. He suggests playing the game with an open mind as it can be a good game.
• He called the Slipspace Engine powering Halo Infinite a brand new engine that still needs updates just like every other engine.
• The most important part is that his comments on crunch were massively overstated. There was never a constant push for crunch but people did it out of their personal choice. Working from home contributed to part of this as there is usually family and other distractions at home. He was also running two art channels which he uses as an example to say that he had enough time to manage them while also doing his work at 343i.
• Lastly, he talked about how he tried to reach other media outlets but no one replied to him back to get the complete picture from him.

As for Halo Infinite, it is currently set to launch in Fall 2021 and will release for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series.