3 possible reasons why Halo Infinite's lead narrative designer left 343 Industries for Riot Games

The Halo community ran into some sad news last night when Halo Infinite’s lead narrative designer, Aaron Linde, officially announced that he will be leaving 343 Industries for Riot Games.

To those unaware, Aaron Linde began his career as an editor for ShackNews and Destructoid. Later on, he took up the role of a content writer for the Gears of War franchise.

He then went on to work as a narrative designer for Guild Wars 2: Living World before transitioning to Bungie and finally to 343 Industries.

Unlike previous entries in the franchise, what set Halo Infinite’s campaign apart is how it was able to provide players with an incredible semi-open world experience.

Aaron, as the narrative lead, had a large part to play in how Halo Infinite turned out in terms of story and progression, and so far, the campaign has hit home on all counts.

So, the question on everyone's minds is, “if Halo Infinite was such a big hit, then why did Aaron decide to jump ship to Riot Games?”

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Why did Halo Infinite’s Aaron Linde leave for Riot Games?

While Aaron Linde had a lot to say about his departure from 343 Industries, most of it was around thanking the team and appreciating his time with them.

He did not disclose much on why he was making the shift, apart from stating that he would be joining Riot Games in their research and development division, Riot Forge. The division is known for coming up with new game ideas.

Last year alone, Riot Forge announced two games under them: Hextech Mayhem and The Ruined King, both of which were based on the League of Legends universe.

However, there are more games on the horizon, and during their 10-year anniversary announcement, Riot Games stated that a fighting title called "Project L” and an MMORPG are also in the works.

And this is where some speculations arise over Aaron Linde’s future role in Riot Games.

1) Working on Valorant’s lore and mirror-verse

One possible speculation is that instead of working on a new game, Halo Infinite’s Aaron Linde might be tasked with expanding the Valorant lore. His arrival might allow the shooter’s narrative to delve deeper into the mirror-verse and “Duality” theory that seems to be heavily influencing its events .

Unlike League of Legends, which already has robust lore with Runeterra, Valorant is still quite fresh. Furthermore, there is a lot that Riot Games can do here to build a narrative as amazing as their MOBA has.

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2) Solo missions and story in Project L

While this is a bit unlikely, it’s not completely impossible. Fighting games do come with a story mode these days. Such titles incorporate a narrative that allows the players to gain a better understanding of their beloved characters.

However, Project L will feature champions from League of Legends itself, which means that these characters already have a strong, established role backing them up.

So, if Aaron does work on Project L for Riot Games, it might not be for the individual character narratives but for the game's story mode.

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3) Is Aaron Linde working on the new MMO?

As mentioned previously, Riot Games also has a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in the works. This game, too, will be set in the League of Legends universe with a vast and expansive open-world gameplay experience.

Now, speculation around Aaron working on the new MMO is rather strong, especially when considering the tremendous work that he has done with the semi-open world structure of Halo Infinite.

In one of his recent tweets, Aaron had written that “I'm departing 343 Industries to pursue a new opportunity in 2022.”

And it’s highly likely that Riot Games’ upcoming MMO might be the “new opportunity” that he is speaking of.