"343 Industries will continue to develop Halo now and in the future," says Halo studio head

343 Industries' studio head, Pierre Hintz, has issued a statement confirming the studio's commitment to the Halo franchise and stating that "343 Industries will continue to develop Halo now and in the future".

"Halo and Master Chief are here to stay," Hintz said in the brief statement.

"343 Industries will continue to develop Halo now and in the future, including epic stories, multiplayer, and more of what makes Halo great."

The statement follows reports that the studio was hit hard by Microsoft's latest round of layoffs, prompting rumors that 343 Industries will apparently soon be ceasing active game development and franchising the Halo license to other studios after Halo Infinite allegedly failed to meet its financial expectations. The single-player DLC planned for Halo Infinite has also reportedly been scrapped. 

"The layoffs at 343 shouldn't have happened, and Halo Infinite should be in a better state," one former 343i developer said at the time on Twitter. "The reason for both of those things is incompetent leadership up top during Halo Infinite development causing massive stress on those working hard to make Halo the best it can be."

While Halo Infinite was critically successful at launch, its sporadic and delayed content updates have left fans frustrated. Since then, there have been several high profile exits, including 343 Industries founder Bonnie Ross, who left the studio after 15 years.

In other news, when Halo Infinite's Winter update finally arrived at the end of last year, bringing with it the series' iconic Forge creative tool, players swiftly jumped into the game to see what they could find in a new file-sharing system, including a hidden Infection mode.

"It looks like you all got an early look at a few mode prototypes," senior community manager John Junyszek said to a fan at the time. 

"Since they still need plenty of work, we'll be hiding the listings - which will unfortunately invalidate any copies. When we're ready to share more about them and their release timings, we'll be sure to let you know."

Does Halo Infinite make the cut in our rundown of the very best shooter games?