Home » News » 343 Industries on Halo 5: Spartan Locke was a mistake
halo5feature
News

343 Industries on Halo 5: Spartan Locke was a mistake

Halo 5: Guardians developer 343 Industries has admitted a focus away from Master Chief was a mistake.

“We took some digs for storytelling in Halo 5, but they were absolutely merited. We very much realized that people wanted Master Chief’s story of Halo 5,” 343’s Frank O’Connor told GamesTM (via NeoGAF).

“We definitely marketed in a way that we hoped was going to bring surprise, but for some fans and certainly fans of Master Chief, it was a huge disappointment because they wanted more Chief.”

O’Connor said that while fans “loved Blue Team [and] liked Osiris,” including co-protagonist Spartan Locke, “they wanted Chief.”

“The effect that the character has on his surroundings and ‘the fate of the galaxy’ has had a resonant effect on fans over the years,” he continued. “It wasn’t that surprising to me, but the volume of ‘give us more Chief’ at the end of Halo 5 was significant and so I think if anything he’s slightly more important now than he has ever been, certainly to our franchise. Instead of focusing on bringing new characters into the world and expanding the playable characters we’ve sort of shifted the focus a little bit to making the world a little bit more realistic and compelling and, I would say, more fun for players who get to inhabit the Chief in the future, pretty much as they demanded.”

Do you think the criticism is merited?

Halo 5: Guardians is available on Xbox One.


This article may contain affiliate links, meaning we could earn a small commission if you click-through and make a purchase. Stevivor is an independent outlet and our journalism is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.

About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Stevivor.com, the country’s leading independent video games outlet. Steve arrived in Australia back in 2001 on what was meant to be a three-month working holiday before deciding to emigrate and, eventually, becoming a citizen.

Stevivor is a combination of ‘Steve’ and ‘Survivor’, which made more sense back in 2001 when Jeff Probst was up in Queensland. The site started as Steve’s travel blog before transitioning over into video games.

Aside from video games, Steve has interests in hockey and Star Trek, playing the former and helping to cover video games about the latter on TrekMovie.com. By day, Steve works as the communications manager of the peak body representing Victorians as they age.