'Halo' Tries To Celebrate Juneteenth, Fails Extremely Racist-ly

A long time ago, Bungie made Halo, a game so good it made Microsoft buy the entire company behind it. Some years later, Bungie got so tired of Microsoft's iron fist that they gave away Masterchief and the rights to the entire Halo series in exchange for their independence. This split created 343 industries, a Microsoft company led by Ex-Bungie employees who now run the Halo series. Bungie has gone on to make the ultra-successful Destiny 2 and very recently came out as the only big gaming company in the world speaking up against racism in the aftermath of the Buffalo shooting, so let's see how their sister company is doing. 343i decided to begin celebrating Juneteenth early by adding a new cosmetic to Halo Infinite. Let's take a look at it, shall we?

343 had the cool idea of beginning Juneteenth celebrations ahead of everyone, too bad they seemingly rushed it so hard they didn't even bother reading up on what Juneteenth was about. Turns out it is a celebration of the emancipation of black slaves, so probably something we should be celebrating through a cosmetic named after the Bonobo, which, some apparently don't know, is a kind of ape. The backlash came quick, and key 343 members were quick to apologize, stating that it was but a mistake. Unfortunately, mistakes such as these are so common that they get harder and harder to believe. The company will gain nothing from the inevitable fallout, so they had no real reason to pull this off on purpose, but if we know one thing it is that companies are filled with rogue devs who like to sneak devious stuff into the code.

343 employees state that “Bonobo” is a name given to a toolset used by the company to develop some aspects of the game, so there's the possibility that someone just left it as a placeholder there – for the first time in the company's history, at the one time when it would pose a problem. What a very interesting coincidence. Other anonymous members of the team note that the cosmetic aspects of the game used to be led by a guy who'd left in the previous month, so the terms of his departure may hold some clues into whether or not he would leave such an abhorrent easter-egg behind. 

The heads of 343 have all apologized for this situation, but we're yet to get an official statement from the company. It looks like the games aren't the only reason 343 will never measure up to Bungie.

Top Image: Microsoft