There may be trouble brewing in Halo Studios, or perhaps it has already boiled over as the team’s art director has left the company and posted a rather ominous sounding message.

Glenn Israel held the title of Art Director at Halo Studios. But posting to LinkedIn, he revealed that he has left the company.

“As of today and after seventeen long years, I am officially no longer contributing to the Halo universe,” wrote Glenn. “There is little more I can say for the moment, though I intend to share this particular story in its entirety when it is absolutely safe to do so next year.”

While it’s certainly possible this is somehow a happy story that he wants to share, Glenn Isreal’s words seem to be hinting toward a problem or conflict that either forced him out of the company, or made him want to leave. Alas, we won’t be able to find out until next year, which is presumably when any NDA’s he is under will run out.

The rest of the message also seems to point toward a problem of some sort, as he wrote: “I know that the state of our industry seems dire, but never forget that you are *free to choose*. No illusion of security nor promise of wealth or fame or power is worth trading away your health, your dignity, your ethics or values – and no one can force you to. Stay strong, take evidence when necessary, and find where you belong.”

To me – and I certainly could be reading into it too much – this seems like Glenn felt his health, values and ethics were under threat from something.

Recently, Melissa Boon, Chief of Staff, also left the company recently with no public statement.

Meanwhile, Reb’s Gaming, a well-trusted reporter of insider information regarding Halo – and who recently revealed even more details about the alleged Halo: Combat Evolved remake – claims that 8 out of the 9 artists on the team have left, leaving only art director Donnie Taylor. It’s unclear if more artists have been hired to fill in the gaps.

I’m going to take another stab at Mr. Speculation here: the mass exodus on the art team makes me wonder if Halo Studios is looking to heavily push the use of AI in this area. That may be what pushed Glenn Isreal’s ethics too far, and what could have resulted in most of the art team either leaving or being let go.

Previous reports painted the studios morale in a very bad light, with tensions apparently running high. Reb repeats these sentiments in his video.

The team is also actively hiring. There’s currently a job opening for a senior software engineer which openly talks about working on the next Halo FPS on Unreal Engine 5.

The timing of all this is also surprising. Halo Studios is promising to lift the lid on multiple projects at the Halo Championship later this month, which should be an exciting time for the team. However, if these reports are to be believed, there could be some serious issues within the developer.