After the recent launch of Halo Wars 2 Dan Ayoub, longtime developer at 343 Industries who worked on the Halo franchise for almost a decade has decided to move on from his current position. 343 Industries announced Ayoub’s departure in a farewell message on the Halo Waypoint Blog. He has been the studio’s head of strategy game development.
Halo Wars 2 launched for Windows PC and Xbox One on Feb, 21. The original Halo Wars launched in February of 2009, just around the time that Ayoub started his stint at 343 Industries. He has been working on Microsoft’s signature gaming property since the launch of 2010’s Halo: Reach. However, Ayoub will remain with Microsoft, joining the company’s Mixed Reality division.
In other news, 343 Industries has recently indicated to fans that Halo 6 news is not in the works for E3 2017 next month. In a comment on Halo’s subreddit, Brian Jarrard, the Halo community manager, said that the franchise will “have a little something at E3 but it’s not related to the next major entry in the franchise.”
Halo 5: Guardians launched back in October of 2015, it seems as the fans weren’t too fond of splitting time between the original protagonist Master Chief, and the all new protagonist Spartan Locke. In an interview last month, franchise director Frank O’Connor said the next Halo, which has not been formally announced, will return to a focus on Master Chief and will not feature any new playable characters. The E3 plans are for the most part already laid out with Microsoft’s E3 keynote is Sunday June 11 at 5:00 pm