Following the original Halo trilogy created by Bungie, 343 Industries took over to make its own trilogy of games. Initially starting a new Master Chief trilogy with Halo 4 and 5 before scrapping those plans for a soft reboot of the franchise with Halo Infinite's campaign, some fans have grown frustrated with the franchise as it develops. Halo Infinite especially has seen a lot of criticism from fans and has also had multiple key developers leave the team. For example, Halo Infinite's multiplayer lead left 343 Industries in March of this year to take time off and relax, thanking Halo fans in his goodbye tweet.Now another key developer, Halo Infinite's Head of Design Jerry Hook, has left 343 Industries. Hook initially joined Microsoft back in 2003, working as a lead program manager for commerce and accounts on Xbox Live. Hook has described himself as an "Xbox Live founding veteran," due to his work in the early days of the service. Later on in his career, he took on an executive producer role at 343 and is credited for work on Halo 4 and Halo 5.Hook announced that he was leaving 343 via Twitter, where he stated that his "journey has been filled with creating new worlds, platforms and products from Xbox, Xbox Live to Halo." Hook then thanked his colleagues and those in the Halo community for their consistent support. The Halo Infinite head of design has left Microsoft before. Back in 2015, Hook parted ways with the company to join Destiny 2 developer Bungie.
In 2018, Hook returned to Microsoft after his time at Bungie, later taking on the role as Halo Infinite's head of design in 2019. It is unknown how Hook's departure will affect Halo Infinite, if it will do so at all, and while there isn't concrete knowledge of what he will work on next, Hook did tease a "new saga" via his Linkedin bio. Hook's departure marks one of a few other Halo Infinite developers leaving 343, such as the aforementioned multiplayer lead and also the lead narrative designer, who took on a position at Riot.
Considering the constant fan criticism of Halo Infinite, many developers have found themselves the targets of frustration. With Halo Infinite's Season 2 launching, hopefully the game will be more acceptable for its fans, and they can lessen their criticism, but even 343 developers are now admitting that the Halo community has run out of patience.
Halo Infinite is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.