Longtime 'Halo' Art Director Quits Halo Studios & Leaves Ominous Message
Glenn Israel, a longtime art director on Halo, who began working at Bungie as a Senior Concept Artist back in 2008, announced he has left Halo Studios.
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In a post to LinkedIn, Israel stated, “As of today and after seventeen long years, I am officially no longer contributing to the Halo universe. 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,” he continued. “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.”
“As always, I’ll be here if you need to talk,” he concluded.
Israel is not the only one to leave the company in recent months. Melissa Boone, the company’s Chief of Staff, left in September and is now a Principal Insights Researcher at Riot Games. Boone was heavily criticized for pushing DEI initiatives throughout Xbox given Microsoft’s website revealed she “manages research across several Xbox franchises and experiences, including Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, Double Fine Studios, and the Xbox Store. She also leads research in diversity, inclusion, and accessibility across Xbox’s games and experiences, with a focus on making Xbox a place where everyone has fun!”
Israel and Boone leaving the company comes just a year after Microsoft announced it was rebranding Halo developer 343 Industries to Halo Studios and revealed it had multiple new projects in development. Additionally, the company claimed it was changing the recipe for new Halo games.
In a post to X, the official Halo account shared, “A New Dawn. We’re entering the next chapter of the franchise and changing the recipe for how we make Halo games. Go behind the scenes with Project Foundry to explore the creative potential of Halo in Unreal Engine 5.”
The company then shared it was recruiting developers to its join its to “help bring the next generation of Halo games to life.”
In a YouTube video announcing the rebrand as well as the new game, it provided more details on Project Foundry with the game’s Lead FX Artist Daniel Henly sharing, “The Foundry Project was an effort to show ourselves how far we can push things using Unreal 5.”
Studio Art Director Chris Matthews added, “Foundry, specifically, is based around the same concept of the Foundry in Halo lore. It’s the place where Halo rings are born.”
He added, “it’s not a game. It’s a research project for our studio so we can prepare ourselves for the next steps of making games.”
Henly then shared, “The original Halo franchise was a graphic showcase. It was best in class. That’s what Halo was when it first was released and that’s what Halo needs to be again.”
While Henly noted the team aims to make future games into graphic showcases, Matthews told Xbox Wire, “The spirit of Halo is more than just the visuals. It’s the lore. It’s the physics.”
He elaborated, “Playing as the Chief, you’re this huge tank of a soldier – it’s the way that he moves, he feels. We’re all really obsessed about what our players love about Halo. We’re constantly listening to this feedback – and that’s at the core of any initiative like Foundry, or any intention that the studio has about how we move forwards.”
In the video, Matthews provided more details about Project Foundry, “We ideated on three locations: something old, something new, and something really alien.”
They then detail those three locations are the Pacific Northwest, the Coldlands, and the Blightlands.
Matthews then shared, “Foundry was an initiative that touched on every part of the creative process. Everything from concept art, VFX, characters, vehicles, and weapons to make the future games of Halo.”
Bryan Repka, the Gameplay Model Supervisor, added, “Creating an asset, taking this design, now, we can really dig into the material foundations. What is it actually made of? How it is physically accurate to the world? Now, we get to take all the wonderful legacy assets that we have, bring them to life, and bring them to today’s standards.”
From there, Chief Operating Officer Elizabeth Van Wyck claimed the company has multiple projects in development.
She said, “We are really excited to be not just working on multiple projects but also expanding our studio.”
Head of Production Michael Fahrny added, “We are looking for new talent as the projects that we’re working on kind of get further and further into their development cycles.”
Finally, VP & Studio Head Pierre Hintze said, “Halo Infinite was the last remnant of how we made Halo games in the past. That was our recipe. And what we are doing right now is we are changing our recipe.”
He elaborated on this with Xbox Wire, “If you really break Halo down, there have been two very distinct chapters. Chapter 1 – Bungie. Chapter 2 – 343 Industries. Now, I think we have an audience which is hungry for more. So we’re not just going to try improve the efficiency of development, but change the recipe of how we make Halo games. So, we start a new chapter today.”
He also noted that what they have created with Project Foundry will be used in the games that they are creating. He explained, “Everything we’ve made is built to the kind of standards that we need to build for the future of our games. We were very intentional about not stepping into tech demo territory. We built things that we truly believe in, and the content that we’ve built – or at least a good percentage of it – could travel anywhere inside our games in the future if we so desire it.”
“It’s fair to say that our intent is that the majority of what we showcased in Foundry is expected to be in projects which we are building, or future projects,” he stated.
As for what those new games look like, Hintze and the team did not provide many details. He explained, “One of the things I really wanted to get away from was the continued teasing out of possibilities and ‘must-haves’. We should do more and say less.”
“For me, I really think it is important that we continue the posture which we have right now when it comes to our franchise – the level of humility, the level of servitude towards Halo fans,” he added. “We should talk about things when we have things to talk about, at scale. Today, it’s the first step – we’re showing Foundry because it feels right to do so – we want to explain our plans to Halo fans, and attract new, passionate developers to our team. The next step will be talking about the games themselves.”
As for why they are developing multiple projects instead of focusing on one, Hintze shared, “We had a disproportionate focus on trying to create the conditions to be successful in servicing Halo Infinite. [But switching to Unreal] allows us to put all the focus on making multiple new experiences at the highest quality possible.”
Interestingly, Van Wyck then noted that the company plans to make games that players want to play, “At the end of the day, if we build the games that our players want to play, that’s how we’ll be successful.”
She added, “That’s what should motivate what we build. That’s also what this structure has done – we want the people that are day-in-day-out making the games to be the ones to make the decisions on the games.”
Furthermore, she shared that the company will consistently seek player feedback, “We’re seeking earlier and earlier, wider and wider feedback from our players.”
“We started that with The Master Chief Collection, and carried that on with Halo Infinite, and we want to do it even more for our next projects.” she explained. “At the end of the day, it’s not just how do we evaluate, it’s how do our players evaluate it?”