Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has found themselves facing allegations of racism after they chose to celebrate Juneteenth with a new nameplate palette originally called Bonobo. The nameplate was quickly renamed Freedom and the error was blamed on the publication of a placeholder name from an internal toolset.
The Halo Bonobo Juneteenth racism allegations
Juneteenth is a holiday held on June 19 in the US that commemorates the emancipation of African American slaves. The Bonobo Halo Infinite nameplate was added to celebrate the holiday, seemingly without anyone in 343 Industries noticing there might be a problem. The Bonobo is, of course, a species of great ape and this immediately attracted allegations of racism on social media channels before the nameplate color palette was rapidly updated. The quick update changed the nameplate’s moniker to Freedom, something we can likely all agree is more appropriate.
The palette was incorrectly named and we immediately renamed it via an update. (2/2)
— John Junyszek (@Unyshek) June 14, 2022
343 Industries’ Senior Community Manager John Junyszek was quick to confirm the palette was “incorrectly named” and blamed the original name on a reference to an “internal toolset”. Bonobo is an in-house string tool that was used on the older Halo games that were in development at Bungie. Bonobo can also extract and decompile images from the games and is reportedly still in use at 343 Industries for Halo Infinite. While the explanation is definitely plausible, many are still upset that the company didn’t catch the error and its other connotations before the nameplate went live. 343 Industries’ founder Bonnie Ross also made a statement:
We are a studio and franchise that is committed to inclusivity where everyone is welcome and supported to be their true self. On behalf of 343, I apologize for making a celebrated moment a hurtful moment. (2/2)
— Bonnie Ross (@PlutonForEver) June 15, 2022
The latest Halo Infinite update is the first of the so-called drop pod updates, smaller updates that focus on bug fixes and minor gameplay improvements. The changes in this update include adding the Season 2 artwork to loading screens and quicker loading times in some areas of the game. The full patch notes can be seen below:
Global
- Season 2 artwork has been added to loading screens across the game.
- All changes to Target Frame Rate in the Settings tab are now reflected in-game for Xbox Series X and Series S users.
- Load times for the Battle Pass, Challenges, Customize and Shop menus have been improved.
- The volume of the Disruptor’s supercombine has been reduced when heard from a distance.
- When both Battle Pass and Event rewards are unlocked in the same match, all unlocked rewards will now appear in the same post-match notification menu. Additionally, these menus will now consistently show all unlocked items.
Campaign
- Weapon racks and ammo crates in the Warship Gbraakon mission are now available consistently.
- Music now plays consistently in the mission Conservatory and in the main menu.
Multiplayer
- The Ranked Arena matchmaking playlist is now unlocked by completing 25 matches in other non-Ranked playlists. This change will not apply to players who have already completed 25 non-Ranked matches prior to this update.
- Due to this change, some players on older versions of Halo Infinite will receive an “Unknown error” when searching in the Ranked Arena playlist. Download this Drop Pod update to continue playing Ranked Arena in matchmaking.
- A new Fireteam Competitive Skill Ranking (CSR) limit has been implemented for Ranked matchmaking. For more information, please see the Fireteam CSR Limit article.
- Xbox One stability has been improved to reduce instances of players not entering matchmaking sessions normally.
- Alterations have been made to increase the durability of light vehicles (Wasp, Banshee, Mongoose) and medium vehicles (Warthog, Chopper, Ghost, Shade). Please see Halo Infinite Weapon, Vehicle, and Equipment Inventory for more information.
- Unique icons have been added to the Custom Game menu to represent Land Grab and Last Spartan Standing modes.
- Grenades exploding, respawning, and other effects will no longer repeatedly occur during gameplay.
- Enemies can no longer be pinged when a wall or another obstacle is blocking them. A direct line of sight is now needed to ping an enemy’s location.
Accessibility
- Various issues tied to the User Interface (UI) Narration option in the Accessibility tab of the Settings menu have been resolved. For example:
- All sent messages in the chat window will now be read aloud as the user scrolls up or down through chat history.
- Players will now be informed when the chat window has been opened and closed.
- Narration now indicates where to invite players in the social menu.
- Instances of blank messages when text-to-speech is enabled have been resolved.
- The text chat window will now consistently show the latest messages received.
- This issue may still occur if Speech-to-Text is enabled in the Accessibility tab of the Settings menu.
In other news, Netflix has announced a reality TV show called Squid Game: The Challenge. Elsewhere, Starfield has four main cities, and New Atlantis is confirmed to be the biggest city Bethesda has ever created.