NEWS - Thursday, July 23, 2009
343 Industries To Oversee All Halo Products
The announcement of the Halo Legends anime series wasn’t the only interesting piece of news to come out of the LA Times report.
A new division within Microsoft called 343 Industries will be keeping a close eye on everything that has Master Chief’s mug on it. Apparently Halo has gotten too big for the folks at Bungie to handle. But don’t worry, the franchise is still in good hands.
343 Industries’ new creative director might ring a bell to some. Remember Frank O’Connor? Yeah, he’s the guy. "If you look at how George Lucas held on to ’Star Wars,’ not just to make money from action figures but to control the direction the universe went in, you can see why we think it’s pretty vital," said O’Connor.
"Luckily, Microsoft has the resources to enable us to do that."
Seven new Halo anime shorts can be expected next year, but Japanese production houses are handling those. It’s 343 Industries’ job to offer direction and guidance.
"Depending on the studio we did everything from writing the stories to feeding them with characters and scenarios they could explore," O’Connor explained.
Hardcore Halo fans may quickly recognize the significance of the number "343" in the studio name. It seems likely its referencing 343 Guilty Spark, whom players first encountered in Halo: Combat Evolved.
Source: http://www.ign.com
