After the mediocre reception Microsoft’s franchise shooter received its last time at bat, the studio behind Halo is rebranding itself and hoping the use of more modern development tools will give it the edge it needs to be relevant again.
The long-time developer studio 343 Industries issued an announcement via the Xbox Wire blog in which the blogs editor-in-chief Joe Skrebels explained a rebranding effort followed by upcoming development plans.
Frist off, we should acknowledge that Microsoft seems to be investing in another Halo game or set of games. Following the announcement that Microsoft would be ending support for Halo: The Master Chief Collection earlier this year, as well as confirming that Season 5 of Halo Infinite would be the last of the nascent games’ updates, all seemed like the studio was closing up shop.
However, studio lead Pierre Hintze took the conclusion of the 2024 Halo World Championship to drop the news that the long held proprietary development engine that powers Halo will be moved from Slipspace Engine to the more widely used Unreal Engine as well as going from 343 Studios to Halo Studios.
The move from SlipSpace to Unreal is one that’s intended to help streamline game development but more importantly, allow the studio to better support and deliver modern experiences to gamers. As Hintze puts it, “Alongside the wider changes to how the studio is set up, adopting Unreal means Halo Studios is more able to create games with a focus that can satisfy fans – even setting up multiple teams to create different games simultaneously. But Unreal also comes with in-built benefits that would have taken years of work to replicate with Slipspace.”
Beyond simply wanting to modernize development, moving to Unreal should also be a cost and time saver for the studio since they won’t have to teach new hires to learn a 25-year-old proprietary or tasking other with building parallel tools to keep up with Unreal.
Better than simple rhetoric, Halo Studios has been at work with its Project Foundry which drummed up “an exploration of what’s possible with this engine – it’s a true reflection of what would be required for a new Halo game using Unreal, and a training tool for how to get there.”
The non-demo-demo is a cool glimpse of what should be expected from future Halo games.
Microsoft made the announcement of Project Foundry earlier this year as it wrapped up the last playable and supported season of Halo Infinite, but at the time, rang hallow for gamers because there was nothing to show for it.
Fast forward nine months and it the future of Halo is looking for a bit more promising than it did just a short few months ago.
Unfortunately, there is no concrete news on an upcoming title, but Hintze does hint at multiple titles being worked on but would like to recenter the way Halo Studios communicates with fans.
Rather than constantly tease out news, Halo Studios plans to only bring announcements to the forefront when there has been substantial progress on a title.
The new measured approached might be annoying for fans looking to jump from Halo Infinite into the new promising beyond, but if the studio can deliver with its new Engine and gaming objectives, I suppose much will be forgiven.
In addition to a new studio name change and new development tools, Halo will also see a shift in the day-to-day management with Pierre Hintze and Elizabeth van Wyck heading up projects. Wyck also noted that the studio will become less insular and seek “earlier and earlier, wider and wider feedback from our players,” to help evaluate the direction of Halo titles.
At the end of the day, “We want a singular focus. Everyone is in this place is here to make the best possible Halo games.”
