After some thought and the decision to focus more on spending time with family, Bonnie Ross leaves the Halo Studio, 343 Industries, after over a decade of hard work. With this announcement came another announcement; that 343 Industries will be restructuring its leadership within the studio.
Bonnie Ross is an icon within the gaming industry and has worked on some notable titles such as Mass Effect, Alan Wake, and Jade Empire. More so, she was the one to pitch the vision for Halo Infinite, even though at the time Microsoft had a very different idea on where to take the franchise due to its slow decline. The timing of Ross's leaving is a bit odd, as just recently 343 released the Halo Infinite 2022 and 2023 Roadmap that caught a lot of negative attention. Ross is leaving the company in order to tend to more important matters, such as a family medical issue, but the timing for the studio couldn't be worse.
Ross has been a part of the gaming industry since 1994 and became a part of the Xbox studio once it was founded in 2007. In regards to Ross leaving the company, she stated,
"After more than 28 years in gaming at Microsoft, including 15 years leading 343 Industries and Halo through its most ambitious steps forward, Bonnie Ross will be leaving Microsoft and spending more time with her family. We are thankful for her leadership of 343 during which the team launched Halo 4, Halo 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, the Halo television series, and Halo Infinite. We wish her all the best. Head of Production Pierre Hintze will become Studio Head effective immediately. The 343 team is hard at work shipping the Winter Update, the biggest Halo Infinite update since launch."
Once the announcement about Ross's leaving was made, Microsoft decided it was also a good time to come forward with their new leadership restructuring plan. Microsoft stated that they will be splitting Bonnie Ross's role into three separate roles in order to better serve the gaming community and leave their mark in the industry. They claim the reason they are splitting the role is due to their massive amount of projects, such as the gaming franchise and the TV series, which has been brought back for another season.
Ross will be leaving immediately to attend to her personal life, and production lead Pierre Hintze will be overtaking the majority of Ross's role immediately, where he will be leading the charge for the future development of Halo Infinite and The Master Chief Collection, as well as any other projects the franchise may be working on.
