Corrine Yu leaves 343i

[Zeph]

http://www.gamechup.com/corrinne-yu-joins-naughty-dog-graphics-coding-on-ps4/

Dunno what might have happened after her little checkup on what the community was up to, but anything she was pushing for likely wont happen any longer.

[Higuy]

I don't think its a shame really, consider the fact that when she asked about the community, that was over 2 years ago. If they really wanted to do something, it would have been done by now.

The fact that she left 343 to me dosen't really matter, actually more or less happy for her if its a better job. I don't think I'd ever want to work for Microsoft either, or at the very least, on a newer Halo game. It's been said before, but I'll say it again: The Halo franchise at this point ( and has been for quite some time) is just being milked. If Naughty Dog is making a completley new IP, I'd much rather work on that too.

[Btcc22]

anything she was pushing for likely wont happen any longer.

We haven't heard a peep for over two years, so as Higuy said, I doubt we're missing out on anything.

[Zeph]

Wow, didn't realize it was that long ago.
It was too late for Halo 4 so whatever it would have been for hasn't been released yet.

[Btcc22]

Such optimism!

[Dwood]

well snap. ms thought she was too hot for the job so they asked her to find some place a little more... naughty.

[Kornman00]

If they really wanted to do something, it would have been done by now.

Not true, with 'they' being MS, the bottom line and what they know will sell comes first. Everything else has to be done in the background/with limited resources. That's all I'm going to say.

[Sean Aero]

Sounds to me like the perfect opportunity to ask what she originally had in mind back then.

[Btcc22]

Everything else has to be done in the background/with limited resources. That's all I'm going to say.

H3EK confirmed.

[Ki11a_FTW]

It's been said before, but I'll say it again: The Halo franchise at this point ( and has been for quite some time) is just being milked. If Naughty Dog is making a completley new IP, I'd much rather work on that too.
Why people keep saying this is beyond me personally. Halo 4 is a gorgeous game. Its very inspired off of Halo 1. IMO the story and sp is great. People say "omgz its just nuther save the world from mass destructionz.". Have you guys played the past trilogy? Halo 4 just lacks characters from the previous games, which is disappointing, yes. I'd love to work for 343 or MS. I don't think she left because she "wanted something to happen.", I think she may have wanted a change and this job may have been more suitable.

[Ki11a_FTW]

Also I have been reading that MS game studios is undertaking a large number of new PC games to develop. Not their $5.99 games, full out PC games for release on the Xbox store and CD, apparently this is the time for PC gaming. Hopefully one of them is Halo.

[Btcc22]

Microsoft always say that though.

[Warsaw]

Why people keep saying this is beyond me personally. Halo 4 is a gorgeous game. Its very inspired off of Halo 1. IMO the story and sp is great. People say "omgz its just nuther save the world from mass destructionz.". Have you guys played the past trilogy? Halo 4 just lacks characters from the previous games, which is disappointing, yes. I'd love to work for 343 or MS. I don't think she left because she "wanted something to happen.", I think she may have wanted a change and this job may have been more suitable.

This. While I think the details of Halo 4 are terrible, the overall package and idea is great. The milking, however, comes more from crap like Halo: Legends, the Mega Bloks kits, and all those action figures.

[Zeph]

Microsoft always say that though.

Except for those years after the Windows Live cross platform tests where mouse/keyboard players completely annihilated controller players and they sold/fired all their PC focused studios and tasked what was left on making their console division profitable.


This. While I think the details of Halo 4 are terrible, the overall package and idea is great. The milking, however, comes more from crap like Halo: Legends, the Mega Bloks kits, and all those action figures.
It definitely comes off as milking, but keep in mind that 343i is like a fanfiction club that gets paid by Microsoft to put their interpretations (LOL SAMURAI ELITES) of the universe out to the general public.
Halo 4 was was pretty terrible, but it was their first game and at the AAA quality. All new studios have growing pains unless they're breaking off from an established group (Titanfall team). They've admitted publicly that mostly all their 'great ideas' failed or came back to bite them in the ass. It's been a while since their initial projects have been released and you've seen a sudden drop in them (mega bloks and action figures are more licensing than commissioning).
They've had their ideas put out there. They've seen how people responded. Now we're seeing in part how they're continuing forward. We'll probably have to wait a bit till after Halo One is released, but I think it'll be much more like every other studio.


Why people keep saying this is beyond me personally. Halo 4 is a gorgeous game. Its very inspired off of Halo 1. IMO the story and sp is great. People say "omgz its just nuther save the world from mass destructionz.". Have you guys played the past trilogy? Halo 4 just lacks characters from the previous games, which is disappointing, yes. I'd love to work for 343 or MS. I don't think she left because she "wanted something to happen.", I think she may have wanted a change and this job may have been more suitable.
Yeah, it is just another save the world from mass destruction [while no one of consequence believes the extent of the threat nearly as much as you] game. It doesn't just lack characters from previous games, it lacks any kind of design in its storytelling. It's a conglomeration of running around pushing buttons in various spots in levels as disembodied voices tell you what you should be doing. Instead of scenarios with clear objectives, you simply move from point to point. There's nothing to intellectually/emotionally invest yourself in with any scenario you're presented with because Halo 4 is just a big movie you play by pressing forward on the thumb stick and holding down the right trigger.

I do agree with you on why she probably left. Doesn't really sound like she was doing any work on anything she enjoyed and was having to work in an environment she wasn't happy with either.

[Higuy]

The reason I say something like that is partially from what Warsaw said, but also because of some other things, namely story and gameplay. I also agree with all of Zephs points for the most part.

The story nowadays for the Halo games is pretty predictable, I mean even Halo 4 was really predictable and so was Halo Reach. They have also all I personally feel lost there mystery. There is always something really awesome with a game that is so expansive, like Halo, that still holds secret. More and more they delve deeper into the background of the Halo series, ex the Forerunners, and it really just ruins it. Instead of allowing the player to use his brain and imagination, they hand feed everyone the information. You could say Halo 4's story is great, and maybe it is to some others, but personally I just find it really bland, predictable, and hand fed. Sure, the visuals were stunning, characters animated so life like. But quite honestly, thats not what makes a game great in my book. I don't play games to watch movies, and Halo 4 felt more like a COD game then an actual Halo game.

The game play is also rinse and repeat I find personally as well nowadays. One of the main reasons I found Halo 4 pretty bad too imo, and same with Reach as well. Even ODST wasn't super good on gameplay, compared to Halo 3 or the other two. They constantly add more weapons without really getting rid of the rest, a lot of them replicas of other weapons with just another skin. It becomes fuggly and unbalanced. The encounters in SP I find have also become really uninspired and boring, nothing like what they use to be in 1 -3. Essentially what I said: they become rinse and repeat encounters. Nothing makes them stand out really. I mean, look back on Halo 4 just in your mind: what level stands out the best? Personally when I look back, I remember most of them, but none of them stick out being great in terms of design, gameplay, ways to tackle the encounter, etc. I can look back on Halo 3 though, or even Halo 2, and remember quite a few levels that really "wow'd" me when I played them (Delta Halo, Gravemind, The Covenant, etc.) Like what Zeph said, most of them have no real clear objectives, and its alot of running around pressing buttons and shooting enemies. Again, not using the player actually use his brain in any way shape and form.

It's just things like that when I look back upon the Halo series I see it really has just gone down the tubes, and that's mainly why I reference milking. I mean, you have to at least see that Halo is arguably the Xbox's biggest franchise besides from CoD (but thats not an exclusive!), and its not like MS is going to let that stop as long as they have it and it continues making them money. I love Halo, but I when I first heard that Master Chief was getting a whole new trilogy I couldn't really believe it. That really just screams milking to me in my opinion, I mean, there is an ENTIRE UNIVERSE to explore that Halo encompasses, and they still come back to Master Chief because he is the icon of the Halo series.

[Warsaw]

Except for those years after the Windows Live cross platform tests where mouse/keyboard players completely annihilated controller players and they sold/fired all their PC focused studios and tasked what was left on making their console division profitable.


It definitely comes off as milking, but keep in mind that 343i is like a fanfiction club that gets paid by Microsoft to put their interpretations (LOL SAMURAI ELITES) of the universe out to the general public.
Halo 4 was was pretty terrible, but it was their first game and at the AAA quality. All new studios have growing pains unless they're breaking off from an established group (Titanfall team). They've admitted publicly that mostly all their 'great ideas' failed or came back to bite them in the ass. It's been a while since their initial projects have been released and you've seen a sudden drop in them (mega bloks and action figures are more licensing than commissioning).
They've had their ideas put out there. They've seen how people responded. Now we're seeing in part how they're continuing forward. We'll probably have to wait a bit till after Halo One is released, but I think it'll be much more like every other studio.


Yeah, it is just another save the world from mass destruction [while no one of consequence believes the extent of the threat nearly as much as you] game. It doesn't just lack characters from previous games, it lacks any kind of design in its storytelling. It's a conglomeration of running around pushing buttons in various spots in levels as disembodied voices tell you what you should be doing. Instead of scenarios with clear objectives, you simply move from point to point. There's nothing to intellectually/emotionally invest yourself in with any scenario you're presented with because Halo 4 is just a big movie you play by pressing forward on the thumb stick and holding down the right trigger.

I do agree with you on why she probably left. Doesn't really sound like she was doing any work on anything she enjoyed and was having to work in an environment she wasn't happy with either.

I don't disagree on any particular point except the "Halo 4 was pretty terrible," because you gave no qualifiers. How was it terrible? Gameplay? Story? Value? Gameplay was pretty damn solid, and better than anything since Halo 1, not counting ODST. Story? The concept was good but the details in both it and the accompanying Forerunner books were tasteless in that they completely ignore existing themes and ideas for the sake of somebody's personal fantasy. Value was smashing, since you got all of Spartan Ops, Season 1 for free as long as you had Xbox Live Gold, in addition to regular campaign, regular co-op, and regular versus multi-player modes. The graphics were good, but rough in a lot of places. The aesthetic direction was goofy and didn't feel very Forerunner, and I preferred the darker, grittier Covenant aesthetic from Reach. Audio was better than any Halo game to date.

[Kornman00]

The milking, however, comes more from crap like Halo: Legends, the Mega Bloks kits, and all those action figures.
What may come across as milking to some, is also about targeting a larger audience.

By the above logic, anything other than a game is milking. So books, live action shorts and pants, ARGs, collectable art, etc.

I'd bet money Legends was about targeting the franchise to the Japanese, where IIRC the game hasn't always sold like hot cakes

Some people are still kids (literally and figuratively), and enjoy things like Legos and Mega Bloks. If I was seven still, I know I would probably be jumping at them Bloks.

Action figures. Do I really need to say anything? Yet another way to target the younger audience, and especially the 'collector' audience (think of all those people who collected Star Wars/Trek figures)

Bungie was in it to tell a story through a game. Microsoft is in it to sell a universe.

[Warsaw]

It's just business. Milking is business. It's not inherently bad.

[Amit]

Milking is business. It is bad. It dilutes the franchise's legacy.

[Dwood]

...targeting a larger audience.

I'm as pro-business as it gets, but is that not, by definition, milking?

Also, Amit: Anything someone makes (money) off a product fits under my category of what milking is. They're just trying to sell milk from the same cow. Said cow is getting old. It's not even, in my opinion, that they're diluting the series. I'm getting bored of it.

[Warsaw]

Bored isn't the word I'd use. Disillusioned, however.

They've succeeded in making me really interested to see where they are going with the Chief's story, but I cringe to think of what details they'll use to illustrate the events since Halo 4's were so terrible.

[Pooky]

I dunno. I'm pretty much done with Halo. I was already getting bored with it circa Halo 3, and nothing since then has really captured my imagination like Halo 1 did. Hopefully Corrine Yu moves onto better, fresher things.

Ki11a_FTW's signature excites me more than the entirety of Halo 4 did.