343 Industries

343 Industries (abbreviated to 343i or 343) is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington. Named after the Halo character 343 Guilty Spark, the company was established in 2007 by Microsoft Studios to oversee the development of the Halo science fiction media franchise following a split between Microsoft and Bungie. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was the first title released by 343 Industries in which they played a lead development role. The newest release from the company was Halo: Fireteam Raven in 2018. 343 is currently developing Halo Infinite.

Formation
343 Industries was founded in 2007, after the former Halo studio, Bungie, separated from Microsoft. It was named after Halo character 343 Guilty Spark. Bungie continued making Halo games until Halo: Reach in 2010.

Development
In July 2009, it was announced that 343 Industries was working on a seven-part Halo anime series called Halo Legends. Later that year the studio created Halo Waypoint, a downloadable application that tracks a user's Halo accomplishments. 343i also increased staff for Halo development, recruiting 20 staff from the now defunct Pandemic Studios. 343i also developed Halo: Reach's second and third map packs, entitled "Defiant" and "Anniversary" respectively, in conjunction with Certain Affinity. The company was responsible for the remastered version of Halo: Combat Evolved, titled Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, which was released on November 15, 2011, to celebrate the 10th year since the release of first franchise installment on November 15, 2001.

Following Bungie's departure from Microsoft in 2007, 343 Industries was eventually given complete control of the Halo franchise including servers and data on March 31, 2012. The studio's development of Halo 4, which began in 2009, was completed ahead of schedule the same year in September. It was released on November 6, 2012, as the first title of a new Halo Reclaimer Trilogy which will include at least two more installments over the years. At E3 2013, Microsoft and 343i announced the next "Halo" installment set for release on the Xbox One. Shortly after the announcement, the Reclaimer Trilogy was confirmed by Microsoft Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer to be expanded into a Reclaimer Saga. The following year at E3 2014, the official title was revealed as "Halo 5: Guardians" along with plans for its release on October 27, 2015. Microsoft, in a contract with Mega Bloks, is in conjunction with 343i to manufacture a new line of toys and other memorabilia for the upcoming Halo saga. Halo 5: Guardians was released on October 27, 2015, with semi-exclusive content to those who purchased select Mega Bloks sets. 343 Industries has since released free monthly content updates since Halo 5's launch.

At E3 2018, Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries announced the next Halo game, titled Halo Infinite, which does not currently have a release date. Infinite will be the first game to be developed using 343's in-house Slipspace Engine.