343 Industries
343 Industries is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Bonnie Ross, the studio is responsible for the "Halo" series of military science fiction games, originally created and produced by Bungie, and is the developer of the Slipspace Engine. Named after the "Halo" character 343 Guilty Spark, the studio was established in 2007 after the departure of Bungie. After co-developing downloadable content for "", Bungie's final "Halo" game, 343 Industries released "" and "Halo 4" to critical and commercial success – the latter starting the studio's "Reclaimer Saga" of  the mainline games. History. Formation. Developer Bungie were acquired by Microsoft in 2000, and their in-development project "Halo" turned into a launch title for Microsoft's Xbox console. In 2007, shortly after shipping "Halo 3", Bungie announced its split from Microsoft. The rights to "Halo" remained with the latter. To oversee the "Halo" franchise, Microsoft created 343 Industries that same year, named after "Halo" character 343 Guilty Spark. Bungie continued making "Halo" games until "" in 2010. Development. In July 2009, it was announced that 343 Industries was working on a seven-part "Halo" anime series called "Halo Legends". Later  that year the studio created "Halo Waypoint", a downloadable application that tracks a user's "Halo" accomplishments. 343i also increased staff for "Halo" development, recruiting 20 staff from the now defunct Pandemic Studios. 343i also developed "Halo: Reach"s second and third map packs, entitled "Defiant" and "Anniversary" respectively, in conjunction with Certain Affinity. The company was responsible for the remastered version of "", titled "", which was released on November 15, 2011, to celebrate the 10th year since the release of the first franchise installment on November 15, 2001. Following Bungie's completion of their last Halo title, "Halo Reach", 343 Industries  was eventually given complete control of the "Halo" franchise including servers and data on March 31, 2012. The studio's development of "Halo 4", which began in 2009, was completed in September. It was released on November 6, 2012, as the first title of a new "Halo" Reclaimer Trilogy which will include at least two more installments over the years. At E3 2013, Microsoft and 343i announced the next "Halo" installment set for release on the Xbox One. Shortly after the announcement, the Reclaimer Trilogy was confirmed by Microsoft Studios corporate vice-president Phil Spencer to be expanded into a  Reclaimer Saga. The following year at E3 2014, the official title was revealed as "Halo 5: Guardians" along with plans for its release on October 27, 2015. Microsoft, in a contract with Mega Bloks, is in conjunction with 343i to manufacture a new line of toys and other memorabilia for the upcoming "Halo" saga. "" was released on October 27, 2015, with semi-exclusive content to those who purchased select Mega Bloks sets. 343 Industries has since released free monthly content updates since Halo 5's launch. At E3 2018, Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries announced the next "Halo" game, titled  Halo Infinite, which was originally scheduled to launch in holiday 2020 for Xbox One and Windows PCs, in addition to being a launch title for the next Xbox console, the Xbox Series X. However, the game was delayed to release in 2021, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the 343i staff to switch to remote work. "Infinite" will be the first game to be developed using 343's in-house Slipspace Engine.