Fernando Reyes Medina’s path to designing Halo Infinite multiplayer began as a teenager playing Halo in Mexico City. He studied computer science, worked as an Xbox engineer, then pursued game design at 343 Industries. He has since moved on: his current biography says he works at Gravity Well on a new intellectual property.
How Halo shaped Medina’s ambitions
Medina grew up in Mexico City, where playing Halo helped spark his interest in video games and game design, according to GeekWire’s June 2020 profile. He later told Mexico’s Expansión that studying computer science was a practical route toward the design career he wanted.
At Tecnológico de Monterrey, he studied computer science before Microsoft recruited him to work as an engineer on different facets of Xbox. His early experience also included internships at Xbox and 343 Industries. The technical background and the game-design ambition were not separate chapters so much as different routes into the same field.
From engineering toward game design
Medina’s transition was deliberate. In a 2022 interview with Expansión, he recounted moving to Seattle and described Halo Heroes, a hackathon project he said was meant to help friends who did not play video games understand why he loved the franchise. It offers a glimpse of the question that stayed with him: how can a game’s appeal become something another person can share?
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GeekWire captured a related priority in 2020, quoting Medina as saying he was “very passionate about democratizing access to gaming to anyone who is interested in playing and making games.” His interest in who gets to participate extended both to playing games and to making them.
What Medina worked on in Halo Infinite
Medina is listed in Halo Infinite’s official credits. In a September 2021 Halo Waypoint interview, he was identified as a senior multiplayer designer and discussed Big Team Battle (BTB).
Rank #2
Keeping BTB recognizable while changing its scale
Medina described the design challenge as preserving what players valued in classic BTB while adapting the mode’s rules and balance for more players and new maps. The game’s 12-versus-12 format, he said, was chosen to retain classic BTB pacing while creating more opportunities for engagements across the map. Those comments explain the team’s design goals; they are not independent measurements of how players experienced the mode.
Making room for different ways to contribute
Medina said the modes were designed to encourage teamwork and support different player archetypes, including snipers, drivers and flag runners. The aim was to let players contribute in different ways rather than make every player approach a match identically.
Accessibility, community and creative voice
Medina’s comments about the Xbox Adaptive Controller reflect his interest in making gaming more accessible. In GeekWire’s 2020 profile, he called it the most exciting technology release he had seen and said its potential to open gaming to more people was inspiring. He was describing what the controller represented to him, not claiming to have designed it.
In a May 2022 interview with Microsoft Conexiones, Medina discussed gaming, community and Latinx creators. He spoke about how people’s cultures give them distinctive stories to tell—a perspective that connects his interest in access with the value of different creative voices.
Rank #4
- CPU: Custom AMD Zen 2, 8 Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.66 GHz with SMT); GPU: Custom RDNA 2, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz, 12 TFLOPS.
- Memory: 16GB GDDR6 with 320-bit bus (10GB @ 560 GB/s, 6GB @ 336 GB/s); Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen 4 custom NVMe SSD, 2.4 GB/s raw, 4.8 GB/s compressed; Optical drive: Ultra HD Blu-ray.
- Gaming Resolution: True 4K; Performance Target: Up to 120 FPS; High Dynamic Range: Up to 8K HDR.
- HDMI Features: Auto Low Latency Mode, HDMI Variable Refresh Rate, AMD FreeSync.
- What's Included: Xbox Series X – Halo Infinite Limited Edition; One Xbox Wireless Controller – Halo Infinite Limited Edition; Full-game download of Halo Infinite (coming soon); Power cord; Ultra High Speed HDMI cable. Nogtox PVT HDMI_cable
Where Medina works now
The phrase “now he’s a designer for the franchise” reflects the timing of GeekWire’s June 2020 headline, not Medina’s current employer. His personal biography now says he works at Gravity Well on a new intellectual property and previously worked at 343 Industries on Halo Infinite multiplayer. The Washington Post also profiled his Halo-related work at 343 Industries in October 2021; that, too, is a historical account of his role at the time.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- Software Main Type: Game
- Software Sub Type: First Person Shooter
- Software Name: Halo Infinite Standard Edition
- ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
- Single Player Supported: Yes
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