Frank O’Connor is the most recent longtime Halo developer to depart the sequence, with Xbox confirming to Axios in a press release that the longtime franchise director has departed after 20 years with the sequence.
“We thank Frank for his quite a few contributions to the Halo franchise and want him properly going ahead,” Microsoft mentioned in a press release.
Rumors of O’Connor’s departure started when followers famous a Linkedin replace displaying that he was not with the corporate. He started as a content material supervisor for Bungie in late 2003, the place he wrote the Bungie Weekly Replace. He joined Microsoft Studios in 2008, which allowed him to stick with the franchise even after Bungie cut up.
Microsoft confirms the departure of longtime Halo franchise director Frank O’Connor, who labored on Grasp Chief’s video games for 20 years: “We thank Frank for his quite a few contributions to the Halo franchise and want him properly going ahead.”
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) April 17, 2023
He was a well-recognized determine amongst Halo followers, showing in Halo 4: Ahead Unto Daybreak as Beamish the Janitor and co-authoring Halo: Evolutions – Important Tales of the Halo Universe. He subsequently rose to the function of improvement director on Halo 5 and Halo Infinite, regularly serving as a spokeperson for the franchise.
His departure follows on the heels of Joseph Staten, who joined Halo Infinite in 2020 in an effort to get the troubled mission prepared for launch. Staten introduced in the present day that he’s becoming a member of Netflix Video games to steer the event of a AAA sport.
As for O’Connor, his subsequent vacation spot is at the moment unclear. O’Connor’s final tweet was in January, and he provided no hints of leaving Microsoft.
Wherever he finally ends up, it appears that evidently a lot of the outdated guard has left Halo, and with Halo Infinite struggling to satisfy its excessive expectations, it is unclear the place the sequence will go subsequent.
Kat Bailey is a Senior Information Editor at IGN in addition to co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Ship her a DM at @the_katbot.