It's no secret that Halo Infinite is taking a bit longer to develop than any other entry in the franchise. Even 343 Industries boss Bonnie Ross recently revealed the reason behind it taking so long. That said, it would also appear that the studio was considering making a smaller "Halo 5.5" in the meantime.

Speaking with IGN, Ross mentioned that she had discussed the future of the Halo series with Xbox boss Phil Spencer. "When we [put out] Halo 5, there were talks about, could we get another Halo out in two years," she said. "So, we did look at, I’d call it a Halo 5.5, or a Halo 5 ODST type of thing. A smaller game.

"We just investigated. Phil [Spencer] and I had a really good discussion on, ‘Where do we want Halo to go?’ If we really want Halo to be something for the next 10, 20 years, we have to do the work. If you want another game, we can do that, but […] my concern was, if you did something like that, I don’t think Halo would do well after that. You can’t put out a half-baked game."

Even if they had gone ahead with a smaller Halo game before moving on to Halo Infinite, there's a good chance that would have impacted the upcoming title, and not for the better. As Ross said in a previous statement, they weren't going to put themselves through another crunch like they did with Halo 5, which is why Infinite is taking a bit longer than usual.

Developing a Halo 5.5-type game likely would have reintroduced the crunch that they were trying to avoid, which would have affected Halo Infinite and fans of the series. Needless to say, they probably made the right move by avoiding the smaller title, especially if the plan is longevity.



Posted: Feb 27, 2019 7:57 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/02/27/343-industries-considered-smaller-halo-5-5-game/