The Halo studio 343 Industries is dialing up its creative team to work on upcoming projects with Master Chief and the latest hire is a new Cinematics recruit. Former gameplay designer for Bungie and former lead gameplay designer at Creative Assembly, Dan Gniady, was also recently brought on board as the new Lead Game Designer, and seemed hellbent on “Giving the Covenant back their bomb”.

Regarding the likelihood that Halo 7 may be crafted on Unreal Engine 5, fans have been drooling over artists’ mock-ups of what the next title would look like running on the software, and news of a former Forza Motorsport Cinematic Lead joining the team to build future projects promises rich cutscenes with stunning visuals fit for the silver screen.

343 Industries hired Josh Daniels as the new Cinematic Director for Halo. Josh previously worked at Turn 10 Studios as the Cinematics Lead for Forza Motorsport. pic.twitter.com/FvoxzY16W4

— Rebs Gaming (@Mr_Rebs_) July 11, 2024

Within the announcement, Daniels expressed he was “over the moon” to be starting as the cinematic lead, and revealed the studio had been at the top of his list to work with. “I’m SO excited to be joining this team and helping craft those exact moments that generations of players may look back on fondly,” Daniels continued and reminisced about playing Halo titles within LAN parties and indulging Halo Infinite during the pandemic.

To close the post, Daniels mentioned the “impossibly talented team” he would be working with to “build even more of those moments for our players”, and finished on one of Master Chief’s iconic quotes: “I think we’re just getting started.”

Daniels was previously at Turn 10 Studios for nearly nine years, starting as a Gameplay Capture Artist before moving on to a Multimedia Artist/Video Editor role for the Forza franchise. The professional then became a Cinematics Artist for over three years before moving to Cinematics Lead in 2020, working on Forza Motorsport.

Honestly nice, the cinematic openings for forza games have always been fantastic

— Winter (@Winterscythe11) July 11, 2024

The social media reception to the studio’s new hire was largely positive, as the community was excited to see the team come together. One comment said, “Although I have quarrels with Forza Motorsport, cutscene and visual direction is far from one of them. Should be a good hire.” Others wondered if Daniels would be working on multiplayer cinematics and some were surprised 343 was thinking about cutscenes for new projects already.

Another positive note that came from social media expressed, “Love seeing reports of new hires and not just new fires. Love to see people passionate about Halo get to work on it.”

Posted: Jul 17, 2024 10:10 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/halo-studio-hires-new-cinematic-director-who-previously-lead-cinematics-for-forza-motorsport/