Halo’s Franchise Director Has Seemingly Departed 343 Industries

There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding Halo developer 343 Industries in recent months, and a number of high-profile creatives have departed the company in that span. Well, you can apparently add franchise director Frank O’Connor to that list, as his LinkedIn says that his tenure at Microsoft ended in April 2023. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment.

If true, O’Connor follows former Halo director Joseph Staten and multiplayer creative director Tom French, who left the company in April and last December respectively. 343 founder and boss Bonnie Ross departed the studio last September to attend to “a family medical issue.”

This apparent brain drain followed a flurry of reports from earlier this year that claimed that at least 95 people were axed from 343 as part of a larger wave of layoffs at Microsoft. One of those reports also claimed that 343 was taken off “active development” of Halo games, which was denied by 343’s studio head Pierre Hintze. Co-developer Certain Affinity is apparently working on a new battle royale-inspired mode under the codename “Tatanka,” and we don’t know much about it. Halo Infinite’s Season 3 recently launched, with 343 promising more consistent updates to the game in the future.