343 Industries

343 Industries is a video game developer owned by the American technology company Microsoft, and is located in Redmond, Washington. They are responsible for the Halo video game franchise after taking over from Bungie Studios.

343 Industries

Company type	Division
Industry	Video games
Founded	2007; 18 years ago (2007)
Founder	Bonnie Ross
Headquarters	Redmond, Washington , US
Key people	Pierre Hintze (studio head)
Products	Halo series
Parent	Xbox Game Studios
Website	343industries.com

Formation

Bungie was a video game developer working on their next project when Microsoft bought them in 2000. Halo: Combat Evolved, the game they were working on, turned into a launch title for Microsoft's Xbox console. Bungie and Microsoft never fit together very well. After the release of Halo 2, Bungie started trying to get better profit sharing for their next game, Halo 3. These discussions led to Bungie becoming independent from Microsoft in 2007. While Bungie was still had a contract to make new Halo games, Microsoft owned the franchise.^[1][2][3][4] Xbox general manager Bonnie Ross said that her coworkers thought Halo was a dying franchise and looked at contracting an outside company to make new games.^{[5][6]: 21:45–23:00} Ross really liked the series, and she wanted a different approach.^{[6]: 26:15–27:05} Ross' pitch convinced Microsoft Game Studios general manager Shane Kim, and she was put in charge of a new internal Halo studio, 343 Industries. The studio was named after the Halo character 343 Guilty Spark.^{[3][7][8][9][10]}

343 Industries started with roughly a dozen workers in late 2007.^[6]: 28:22 Bungie employee Frank O'Connor helped with the transition. He quit Bungie to serve as 343 Industries' franchise director.^[1][5] During the transition, 343 Industries worked with the company Starlight Runner to interview Bungie employees and put together a central story for the franchise. 343 Industries also worked with Bungie on their last Halo projects, Halo 3: ODST (2009) and Reach (2010).^{[6]: 30:50 [11][12]} art director Kiki Wolfkill, who joined the team as a studio head.^[1] During the transition, 343 Industries worked with the company Starlight Runner to interview Bungie staff and compile a centralized story bible for the universe. 343 Industries also worked with Bungie on their last Halo projects, Halo 3: ODST (2009) and Reach (2010).^{[6]: 30:50 [11][12]}

Games

Year	Game	Platform(s)	Notes
2011	Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary[13]	Xbox 360	Collaboration with Saber Interactive
2012	Halo 4[14]		Collaboration with Certain Affinity
2013	Halo: Spartan Assault[15]	iOS, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox 360, Xbox One	Collaboration with Vanguard Games
2014	Halo: The Master Chief Collection[16]	Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X/S	Includes Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2 Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and Halo 4
2015	Halo: Spartan Strike[17]	iOS, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone	Collaboration with Vanguard Games
2015	Halo 5: Guardians[18]	Xbox One	Halo 5: Forge was released on Microsoft Windows
2016	Halo Wars: Definitive Edition	Microsoft Windows, Xbox One	Collaboration with Behaviour Interactive
2017	Halo Wars 2		Collaboration with Creative Assembly
	Halo Recruit	Microsoft Windows	Collaboration with Endeavor One
2018	Halo: Fireteam Raven	Arcade Cabinet	Collaboration with Play Mechanix and Endeavor One
2021	Halo Infinite[19]	Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S	Collaboration with SkyBox Labs, Sperasoft, The Coalition and Certain Affinity[20][21][22][23]