Another one of 343 Industries veteran developers has departed the company. This time it’s Halo Infinite’s Multiplayer Creative Director Tom French, who announced via Twitter that he was heading off to “new ventures.” French’s career at 343 spanned more than 11 years of working on Halo titles and was an integral part of creating the new saga for Master Chief. “It’s been a massive honor to have been part of a game I loved so much as a player and admired so much as a developer. I couldn’t be more proud of my time at 343,” French stated in his tweet.
French’s departure comes shortly after the title receives its long-awaited updates for multiplayer. This includes several signature Halo features such as campaign co-op, an open beta of the Forge, and mission replay. This also comes only couple of months after studio head Bonnie Ross stepped down from her position after helming it for more than 15 years. The Winter Update, in which the aforementioned features were finally added, arrived just last month, a little less than a year to the day after the title launched.
French’s tenure at 343 started with him as a mission designer for Halo 4, which was 343’s first fully-fledged Halo entry without Bungie. His position was then elevated when he was the User-Generated Content Lead for Halo 5: Guardians, in which he took on a public role in helping change the Forge mode. The fanbase praised his input and credited him for salvaging what many considered to be a disappointing title. His role as Multiplayer Creative Director saw him take on the arduous task of ironing out Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode, which was eventually revealed as a free-to-play model. It mostly because of this new direction that the title flourished and became the biggest launch in franchise history.