Ex-Halo Boss Tells Activision How to Fix the Franchise, Starting With Laid-Off Bungie Devs

Frank O'Connor, the former franchise director for Halo, has some advice for Activision now that the publisher is reportedly in charge of the series' next chapter. Topping his list is a simple one: go hire the people who already know how to make Halo.

According to the report, Activision is set to build the next Halo game with a "purpose-built team," a phrase that suggests a fresh group assembled for the job rather than an existing studio simply handed the keys. O'Connor's suggestion is that the quickest way to give that team credibility is to recruit from the pool of developers who were laid off from Bungie and Halo Studios in recent rounds of cuts.

The logic is easy to follow. Both studios have lost experienced staff who spent years working on the series' combat, sandbox design and multiplayer. Those skills are hard to teach and hard to replace, and a new team starting from scratch would otherwise be reinventing a lot of institutional knowledge. Bringing even a portion of those veterans on board would give the project a foundation that an entirely new hire list could not.

O'Connor laid out a few pointers in total, but the hiring advice is clearly the one he wants Activision to hear first. It also lands at a sensitive moment for fans, many of whom have watched the franchise change hands, change engines and change direction over the past several years. Layoffs at the studios that built the series have only added to the sense that Halo's core talent has been scattered.

For Activision, the challenge is considerable. Halo has a devoted audience with very specific expectations, and any new entry will be judged against the best of the classic games as well as recent releases. A team with real Halo experience would go a long way toward reassuring players that the series is in capable hands.

There is no release window or official detail on the project's scope, so for now O'Connor's comments are best read as an informed outsider's wish list rather than a sign of what Activision is actually planning. Still, coming from someone who spent years steering the franchise, they offer a clear picture of what he thinks matters most: keep the people who understand Halo in the building, wherever that building ends up being.