Bonnie Ross Responsibility to Halo

[ADM S Osman]

I've been reading very strong emotional opinions to #fire343 and #fireBonnieRoss which have been all baseless to say no more than people are dissatisfied with Halo again. While I also am not happy with where Halo is I think its important to open this discussion on where and how Bonnie could be responsible and what speculative information we have to work with. A big argument to Bonnie Ross still being employed is the considered bad optics of firing a female industry leader.

This is an even more troubling issue of poor mismanagement at an higher level than the studios, if its considered true. In 2014, Fortune listed Ross as one of "10 powerful women in video games", which noted that she was "responsible for defining the vision and leading the Halo franchise". While this is almost a decade ago already I don't believe Bonnie Ross is at fault, having personally spoken with her at several events.

It is a very interesting question to raise why is she not held responsible. Many are commenting in the hashtags I mentioned that Microsoft does not care about Halo but we actually see it the other way. Microsoft as a corporation is trying to secure a profit margin by Bonnie & 343 Industries and so long as they meet data-driven goals set by Microsoft there is no real reprecussion. Unfortunately this same data is internal company information and not easily accessible to make informed opinions on but it could be the only reason Bonnie is also successful.

TLDR; the metrics to measure success are in her favor whatever public opinion there might be and that should be welcomed and okay. Halo might just be the first of many games where the community is being marginalized by Microsoft standard business practices, I think this would be a great thread in itself considering Microsoft is acquiring so many other studios.