This is a summary of the long thread from Bathrobe Spartan which you can find here: https://x.com/BathrobeCast/status/1812578845108625769

343 kept losing people in 2023 & 2024. Lead to more outsourcing content. Contracts not being renewed. 50-60 people let go on top of the >100 laid off.

Some roles transferred to MS/Xbox Team instead of being internalized at 343.

343 still relying on contractors, staff are not pleased to see leadership has not learned from the production of Infinite.

Less than 280 employees as of May 2024, with 30% of them related to Game-Content-Production, the rest are business oriented roles & producers.

Not enough positions have been opened to fill the gap from what it was before 2023. ~32 permanent positions opened in 2023 & 2024. Not enough staff to be "Production Ready".

343's budget has been severely impacted and controlled. This is why recruiting took longer and pushed people to leave. Key roles couldn't be replaced in time to finish content left.

Halo Infinite didn't meet its commercial goals but made enough to justify finishing the content already contracted with external studios, but not enough to justify doing more than was started. Quote from an ex employee "No we made money, we made a lot of money. But when I walked into the test bay to test the latest build EVERY FUCKING DAY the guy running it said "why bother, they are gonna hate it anyway" that's demoralizing. I would love to tell you what we worked on, but I can't and won't, not just because of the NDA but because I'm being loyal to the company. I still want to work there. It does bother me people praise Pierre, like, who do you think mandated Forge Maps going forward..."

Partnered forge maps not being high quality is due to to 343 being tied to legal obligations to fulfil the contracts but not enough time left to polish.

As the product did not reach its commercial goal, projection implied it wasn't worth contracting new content outside cosmetics. Meaning no new sandbox additions.

During 2023 & 2024, many employees helped other Xbox studios on their products as most Infinite content was handled by contracted studios.

343 shifting to a new production method, separating "Leading development" and Production. Hiring lead positions to do the concept and pre-production in-house & handing off the production work to other studios, similar to Halo Wars 2. Recruiting less content-creating roles and more lead profiles to test, iterate and validate content and gameplay before working with external studios to go full production. 2 studios are currently partnered to work on 2 separate projects this way. Both still in pre-production. One is a bigger scale PvP oriented project. At least 2 years before any release.

Aim of this new production method is to help produce content for games at a reliable pace and more cost effective. Hopefully won't lead to reproducing what happened with Infinite.

Remaining 343 staff have echoed they feel like 343 Industries isn't as much "The Home of Halo" as it was promised to them. They hope this new method of production will be the best for the franchise.

From the blog:

A new Big Team Battle mode has arrived in Halo Infinite. Introducing BTB: Sentry Defense!

Adjutant Resolution, one of Zeta Halo’s submonitors who you met and fought in Halo Infinite’s campaign, has decided to jump into some multiplayer action. Two of them—simply known as “sentries” in this context—are on each team; your objective is to protect your sentries and destroy the enemy’s.

Each team has 2,000 points. As damage is dealt to your sentries, the available score drops, and if you reach 0 it’s game over. Each map will have at least one Repair Field that spawns in a neutral location—in addition to providing health regeneration for your fellow Spartans and vehicles, it’ll also repair your sentries.

BTB: Sentry Defense will be playable on:

• Fragmentation
• Highpower
• Deadlock
• Oasis
• Scarr
• Command

Available this summer!

Tom Warren originally reported it here, however the full article is behind a paywall.

You can find it here if you want to read the full thing: https://boards.4chan.org/v/thread/677821627

It basically says that "classic style gameplay" doesn't work for the franchise because of the lowering player numbers and "feedback from Reddit". That's already enough to claim it's bs.

"Anything Halo Infinite has done will be ignored and Halo 5 is the blueprint that Project Halo 7 (tentative title) will be built on." Mmm yes let's build a game based on H5, the one that was received so poorly it caused them to go back to classic styled.

All abilities from H5 will be back and includes double jump and wall running. Come on, you're just taking ideas from Titanfall.

This bit is the icing on the cake. "The goal of the campaign's story is to be "the true Halo 6" after the nonsense that was Halo Infinite." I find it hard to believe that someone would think that Infinite was more nonsense than 5.

Rest of it is just prometheans returning but nerfed and no banished but from the first point you can tell this is bs, I just felt like sharing it

Summary:

• Plasma Pistol EMP
• sidekick rounds per second decreased
• sniper ready up time decreased
• cinder shot pull effect disabled, rounds per second decreased
• gravity hammer general nerf
• spike grenade detonation timer now starts when the grenade lands, timer decreased
• firefight assist score added
• ranked matches will end if the game starts with unbalanced teams
• custom game score overrides
• respawn cameras buffed
• bandit EVO added to bandit weapon drills
• scorpion removed from Deadlock pelican drops
• BTB Heavies refresh coming later in the Banished Honor operation

What you can expect in the next update, including new and highly requested features from the community:

• THE EXCHANGE: Customization items from the past return in Halo Infinite’s new Exchange store, purchased with free Spartan Points which can be earned by completing matches and your weekly Ultimate Reward.
• OPERATION PASS: A free new 20-tier Operation Pass themed around the might of the Banished.
• SANDBOX TUNING: Halo Infinite’s sandbox is getting some tuning updates based on community feedback, including EMPowering players with the return of the Plasma Pistol’s ability to stun vehicles.
• FORGE UPDATES: Two new Forge palettes are on the way, including Flood-infected objects.
• BTB HEAVIES REFRESH: New maps coming to this existing playlist the week after Banished Honor launches.