Last year was both a sweet and sour one for 343 Industries, which early on saw roughly 100 employees losing their jobs, followed by a great autumn with gamers returning to Halo Infinite thanks to the excellent Season 5: Reckoning and brilliant Forge additions.
And now they seem to be planning ahead for some great new adventures, and are actually hiring people again, one of them being Chris Matthews - previously art director for Gears of War, Battlefield and Forza Motorsport. He revealed this step himself in his LinkedIn profile, where he also says that he is leading Halo to exciting new times:
"In a hugely turbulent industry it feels hard to celebrate the beginning of something new - but I am incredibly proud to join 343 Industries as Studio Art Director.
This was a culmination of over a decades work, learning and growth as an Art Director and I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity to help lead Halo into a very exciting new era."
The Halo community are already debating that last sentence, but there was a rumour a couple of months ago claiming 343 Industries is currently developing a new Halo, using Unreal Engine 5 instead of the in-house Slipspace Engine. While we don't know if this "very exciting new era" has anything to do with that project, it seems fairly plausible.