Bonnie Ross | |
---|---|
Born | 1966or1967(age 56–57) [1] |
Nationality | American |
Other names | Bonnie Ross Ziegler |
Alma mater | Colorado State University |
Occupation | Game developer |
Years active | 1994–present |
Known for | Video game development |
Notable work |
Bonnie Ross is an American video game developer. She served as Corporate Vice President at Xbox Game Studios, and was the head of 343 Industries, the subsidiary studio that manages the Halo video game franchise. Ross studied technical writing and computer science in college, and worked at IBM before getting a job at Microsoft. She worked on a number of PC and Xbox games, becoming a general manager at Xbox Game Studios.
In 2007, Ross helped found 343 Industries, building a studio that would work on a new Halo game after the departure of developer Bungie. 343 Industries' first game, Halo 4 , released in 2012. Ross oversaw the Halo franchise, including merchandise and media adaptations. She has been honored for her work in game development and her efforts to push for more diversity in video games.
Growing up, Ross enjoyed science fiction, imagining what it would be like to create similar worlds herself. [2] She played basketball, softball, tennis, and volleyball. [3] Her first video game was a 1970s Mattel handheld basketball game. Ross credited her athletic background with introducing her to gaming, as well as teaching her to learn from setbacks and failure. [4] Encouraged by her parents to pursue a more practical career than sports, Ross studied technology. [3]
Ross attended Colorado State University, initially majoring in engineering; she was one of the only women in her program. Desiring more creative freedom, Ross switched to a technical writing program in the journalism department during her 1987–88 school year. She interned at IBM for two years, and coached high school sports and wrote technical manuals in her spare time. [4] Ross graduated in 1989, with a degree in Technical Communication and a concentration in Physics and Computer Science. [1]
After graduation, Ross applied to NeXT, Apple, and Microsoft; NeXT and Apple did not respond to Ross' resume, while Microsoft did. [5] : 9:40–10:30 At Microsoft, she tired of the dry, technical writing her job required. Initially looking at taking a break from Microsoft for a year to work on something creative, she secured a position as a producer on a basketball game on the basis of her sports and technology background. [1] [5] : 12:50–14:20 The game, Microsoft Full Court Press, released in 1996. [3] Ross described her early career as working on co-development and publishing projects. She worked on games such as Zoo Tycoon , Fuzion Frenzy , Jade Empire , Mass Effect , Psychonauts , Gears of War , Alan Wake , and Crackdown in roles such as lead or executive producer, and studio head. [3] She credited the variety of games as encouraging her to stay at Microsoft rather than moving to another company. [6]
By 2005, Ross was a general manager for Microsoft Game Studios (now Xbox Game Studios). [3] When Halo developer Bungie split from Microsoft in 2007, Microsoft created a new internal team to oversee the franchise. Ross recalled that her colleagues felt Halo was a waning property and looked at contracting an outside company to produce new games, but she argued differently. [1] [5] : 21:45–23:00 Ross had first become acquainted with the franchise through the tie-in novel Halo: The Fall of Reach . The deep backstory and universe in the novel appealed to her. [5] : 26:15–27:05 Ross' pitch won over Microsoft Game Studios general manager Shane Kim, and she was put in charge of the new studio, 343 Industries. [3]
Beginning in late 2007, 343 Industries started with a staff of roughly a dozen people. [5] : 28:22 Bungie staffer Frank O'Connor assisted in the transition, and expected Ross would be an executive with no knowledge of Halo or its appeal. Instead, Ross impressed O'Connor with her deep knowledge of the franchise, and O'Connor quit Bungie to join 343 Industries as franchise director. [1] [7] Ross' vision for Halo also impressed art director Kiki Wolfkill, who joined the team as a studio head. [7] During the transition, Ross worked with the company Starlight Runner to interview Bungie staff and compile a centralized story bible for the universe. 343 Industries also worked with Bungie on their last Halo projects, Halo 3: ODST (2009) and Reach (2010). [5] : 30:50 [8] 343 Industries has also collaborated with other studios to produce Halo games, such as Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary , [9] Halo: Spartan Assault , [10] and Halo Wars 2 . [11]
343 Industries would ultimately hire from more than 55 different companies to work on their first major game, Halo 4 . [12] Midway through development, 343 changed the vision of the project significantly, leading to the departure of the game's creative director and Josh Holmes as a replacement. The developers created a vertical slice of gameplay that was very similar to a Bungie-style Halo game, and then used that to inform a different direction for the game. [7] Halo 4 released in 2012 and grossed $220 million in first-day sales. [13]
In 2014, 343 Industries released Halo: The Master Chief Collection , a compilation of the four main Halo games for the Xbox One. On launch, the game suffered from severe issues, and Ross issued public apologies for the state of the product; she later called it the worst moment in her career. [1] Ross later promised future 343 Industries games would have betas to avoid similar problems. [14] Halo 5: Guardians released in 2015, and sales of the games and related merchandise topped $400 million in its first week. [15] Lessons learned from the development of Halo 5 led to a longer development period for the next game, Halo Infinite , released in 2021. [12] [16]
Ross also envisioned the Halo franchise growing with transmedia content such as books and television. [12] Halo 4's release coincided with a tie-in episodic series, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn . Ross would later announce a live-action Halo television series at the Xbox One reveal in 2013. [17] [18]
Ross announced her departure from 343 Industries on September 12, 2022. [19]
Noticing how few women attended gaming events like E3, Ross helped found a networking group that evolved into the Microsoft Women in Gaming community and a yearly event. She believes gaming can serve as a way to get young people interested in STEM careers by relating it to something they enjoy. [20] Ross has worked to hire more female game developers so more women can find role models within the industry, and worked with the Ad Council's #SheCanSTEM campaign. [4] Head of Xbox Phil Spencer said Ross' profile helped attract female talent to the company. [21] Ross told 60 Minutes she believes more diverse teams result in more innovation and creative output. [22]
Ross argues that game developers have a "personal responsibility" to avoid gendered stereotyping in their games, as well as taking action against sexist abuse. She recalled that for every character in Halo 4, "we were very deliberate in thinking about who should be female and who should be male in the game, and if we came off stereotypical, we went back to question what we were doing and why." [23] [24] Ross has also focused on introducing more racial and gender diversity to the video games. [21]
Ross appeared as a speaker at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, held in Phoenix, Arizona, presenting on "Technology and How It Is Evolving Storytelling in Our Entertainment Experiences". [25] She has also made appearances as a speaker at GeekWire 2013 [26] and Microsoft's ThinkNext 2015 in Israel. [27] Ross was also the lead speaker for Microsoft's presentation at the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo, as part of an industry push for larger roles for women. [28] [29]
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". [30] The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences named Ross as their 2019 Inductee to their Hall of Fame at the 22nd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards held in February 2019. She was the second female inductee in this award since its establishment. [12]
Halo: Combat Evolved is a 2001 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox. It was released as a launch game for Microsoft's Xbox video game console on November 15, 2001. The game was ported to Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X in 2003. It was later released as a downloadable Xbox Original for the Xbox 360. Halo is set in the twenty-sixth century, with the player assuming the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier. The Chief is accompanied by Cortana, an artificial intelligence. Players battle aliens as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the eponymous Halo, a ring-shaped artificial world.
Xbox Game Studios is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, for the development and publishing of video games for Microsoft Windows. It has since expanded to include games and other interactive entertainment for the namesake Xbox platforms, other desktop operating systems, Windows Mobile and other mobile platforms, web-based portals, and other game consoles.
Halo 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox console. Halo 2 is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. The game features new weapons, enemies, and vehicles, another player character, and shipped with online multiplayer via Microsoft's Xbox Live service. In Halo 2's story mode, the player assumes the roles of the human Master Chief and alien Arbiter in a 26th-century conflict between the United Nations Space Command, the genocidal Covenant, and later, the parasitic Flood.
343 Guilty Spark, also known as just Spark, is a character in the military science fiction Halo franchise. 343 Guilty Spark plays a major role in the storyline of the original Halo video game trilogy: the character appears in Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3, as well as the remakes of the first two games, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and Halo 2: Anniversary. 343 Guilty Spark is voiced by actor Tim Dadabo in all media.
Cortana is a fictional artificially intelligent character in the Halo video game series. Voiced by Jen Taylor, she appears in Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians and Halo Infinite. She also briefly appears in the prequel Halo: Reach, as well as in several of the franchise's novels, comics, and merchandise. During gameplay, Cortana provides backstory and tactical information to the player, who often assumes the role of Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. In the story, she is instrumental in preventing the activation of the Halo installations, which would have destroyed all sentient life in the galaxy.
Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, colloquially known as Master Chief, is the protagonist of the Halo video game series and its spin-off media. The character first appeared in the 2001 video game Halo: Combat Evolved, a science fiction first-person shooter that became a long-running franchise. The character also appears in spin-off Halo media such as the 2012 film Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, the 2022 Halo television series, and several graphic novels and books.
Halo is a military science fiction media franchise, originally developed and created by Bungie and currently managed and developed by 343 Industries, part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios. The series launched in 2001 with the first-person shooter video game Halo: Combat Evolved and its tie-in novel, The Fall of Reach. The latest main game, Halo Infinite, was released in late 2021.
Joseph Staten is an American writer best known for his work at video game studios Bungie, Microsoft Studios, and 343 Industries.
Certain Affinity is an American video game development studio based in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2006 by Max Hoberman and a small number of other ex-Bungie employees and other industry veterans.
Halo 4 is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. Halo 4's story follows a cybernetically enhanced human supersoldier, Master Chief, and his artificial intelligence construct Cortana, as they encounter unknown threats while exploring an ancient civilization's planet. The player assumes the role of Master Chief who battles against a new faction that splintered off from remnants of the Covenant, a former military alliance of alien races, as well as a new enemy: mechanical warriors of the Forerunner empire known as the Prometheans. The game features a new selection of weapons, enemies, and game modes not present in previous titles of the series.
Halo 3: ODST is a 2009 first-person shooter game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The fifth installment in the Halo franchise as a side game, it was released on the Xbox 360 in September 2009. Players assume the roles of United Nations Space Command Marines, known as "Orbital Drop Shock Troopers" or ODSTs, during and after the events of Halo 2. In the game's campaign mode, players explore the ruined city of New Mombasa to discover what happened to their missing teammates in the midst of an alien invasion. In the "Firefight" multiplayer option, players battle increasingly difficult waves of enemies to score points and survive as long as possible; Halo 3's multiplayer is contained on a separate disc packaged with ODST.
Halo: Reach is a 2010 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios, originally for the Xbox 360. The sixth installment in the Halo series and a direct prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, Reach was released worldwide in September 2010. The game takes place in the year 2552, where humanity is locked in a war with an alien theocracy known as the Covenant, which seeks to exterminate humanity. Players play as Noble Six, a member of an elite squad of supersoldiers, known as Noble Team, attempting to stage a defense of the human world known as Reach, which falls under Covenant attack. The game was the last in the series to be developed by Bungie.
Corrinne Yu is an American game programmer. She has worked on games including King's Quest, Quake II, and Halo 4. Her engine work included Unreal Engine 3, Microsoft's Direct3D Advisory Board, and CUDA and GPU simulation at Nvidia. She has also designed accelerator experiments for nuclear physics research.
343 Industries is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the Halo series of military science fiction games, originally created and produced by Bungie, and is the developer of the Slipspace Engine. Named after the Halo character 343 Guilty Spark, the studio was established in 2007 after the departure of Bungie after the release of Halo 3.
Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington, and a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones after publishing Jones's game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. Originally based in Chicago, Illinois, the company concentrated on Macintosh games during its early years and created two successful video game franchises called Marathon and Myth. An offshoot studio, Bungie West, produced Oni, published in 2001 and owned by Take-Two Interactive, which held a 19.9% ownership stake at the time.
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is a 2011 first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries, Saber Interactive, and Certain Affinity. It is a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved (2001), developed by Bungie. Publisher Microsoft announced Anniversary alongside Halo 4 at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo. It was released in November 2011, the 10th anniversary of the original Halo, for the Xbox 360 console, and re-released as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the Xbox One in November 2014. A Windows version was released in March 2020.
Halo: Spartan Assault is a twin stick shooter video game developed by 343 Industries and Vanguard Games. Part of the Halo media franchise, the game was released on July 18, 2013, for Microsoft's Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 platforms. The game subsequently released on Xbox 360, Xbox One, Steam, and iOS. Halo: Spartan Assault is set between the events of Halo 3 and Halo 4. Players control the human soldiers Sarah Palmer and Edward Davis as they fight a new splinter faction of the alien Covenant. The game launched with 25 single-player missions; an additional campaign released as downloadable content. The console versions also feature an exclusive cooperative horde mode.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a compilation of first-person shooter video games in the Halo series. The collection was released in November 2014 for the Xbox One, and later ported to Microsoft Windows and the Xbox Series X/S. The collection was developed by 343 Industries in partnership with other studios and was published by Xbox Game Studios. The collection includes Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4.
Halo Infinite is a 2021 first-person shooter game developed by 343 Industries and published by Xbox Game Studios. It is the sixth mainline installment in the Halo series, following Halo 5: Guardians (2015). The game's campaign follows the human supersoldier Master Chief and his fight against a mercenary organization, known as the Banished, on the Forerunner ringworld Zeta Halo. Unlike previous mainline entries in the series, the multiplayer portion of the game is free-to-play.
Kiki Wolfkill is an American video game developer. Wolfkill grew up in Pennsylvania and studied journalism and art at the University of Washington, road racing competitively on the side. At Microsoft, she transitioned from developing multimedia for Microsoft Encarta to working on art for Microsoft's video games, including the racing series Midtown Madness and Project Gotham Racing.