343 Industries founder Bonnie Ross leaves the Halo studio after 15 years

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Ross is leaving ahead of plan to attend to a "family medical issue"

Halo Infinite
(Image credit: Microsoft/343 Industries)

Bonnie Ross, head of Halo developer 343 Industries, has announced that she's leaving the studio 15 years after founding it.

"While I had hoped to stay with Halo until we released the Winter Update, I am letting you know I will be leaving 343 and attending to a family medical issue," Ross says in a tweet. "I am incredibly proud of the work everyone at 343 Industries has done with Halo Infinite, the Master Chief Collection, the Halo television series, and so much more. It has been an honor to serve alongside the team for the last 15 years and to be a part of a universe that I love."

343 Industries will now split Ross's role into three parts, according to Windows Central. Production lead Pierre Hintze will take over as studio head for 343. Head of marketing Bryan Koski will become GM of the Halo franchise. Head of business, operations, and community engagement Elizabeth Van Wyck will now fully oversee business and operations.

Founded in 2007, 343 Industries was built to oversee the Halo franchise when original developer Bungie split with Microsoft. After Halo: Reach launched in 2010, Bungie left the series entirely, and 343 took over development of new Halo games starting with Combat Evolved Anniversary, a collaboration with Saber Interactive. Since then, 343 has released Halo 4, 5, and Infinite, alongside numerous spin-off games.

Halo Infinite had a critically successful launch last year, but sporadic content updates have left the game's multiplayer component on life support. Forge mode promises to be a major injection of life for the game, but many fans are already tired of waiting for Infinite's moment.

Dig into our ranking of the best Halo games of all time.

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Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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