Halo Infinite is a tremendously large project. 343 Industries has hundreds of employees working on the game and is likely to continue to grow moving forward. From time to time news about developers moving over to work on Halo gets shared. The latest example is one to certainly take note of. Gareth Coker, a composer for Minecraft, ARK: Survival Evolved, and the two Ori games from Moon Studios, is now confirmed to be working on Halo Infinite's soundtrack.
343 announced Coker joining the team ina recent post on Halo Waypoint. In a section titled "Welcome to the Family" 343 announced that Coker was working as a second composer on Halo Infinite, with Curtis Schweitzer. Both composers are new to the franchise, brought on after 343's previous Halo composer Kazuma Jinnouchi departed the company in 2018. Schweitzer previously worked on projects including Starbound and Interstellar Rift.
Coker's work has yet to be heard, it seems, but 343 describes that it will be throughout Halo Infinite's campaign. One song specifically is brought to attention, internally referred to as "Escharum's theme." War Chief Escharum is now confirmed to be one of Halo Infinite's key villains, the leader of the Banished faction of Brutes on the Halo Infinite's Halo ring. Hints at it can perhaps be heard at the end of the new Halo Infinite gameplay demo.
The necessity of two composers for Halo Infinite can likely be explained by the scope of the project. Halo Infinite's campaign was described as bigger than both Halo 5 and Halo 4, and Halo 5 was already twice as big as Halo 4. A big game requires a lot of music.
There's also the fact that 343 apparently plans to support Halo Infinite with new content for years going forward, with no plans for another numbered sequel at this time. Depending on just how much content 343 plans for Halo Infinite, a significant amount of new music could be needed.
Halo has historically been associated with some of the best music in gaming. Martin O'Donnell's work with Bungie during its Halo years is very well-regarded for good reason. Jinnouchi's work on Halo 4 and Halo 5 was very well-regarded as well, and now Schweitzer and Coker will inherit that legacy. Hopefully, 343 shares more of the team's work soon so fans can hear it for themselves.
Halo Infinite releases holiday 2020 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.