Future Halo Games Moving to Unreal

Halo's future is beginning to take shape. A number of announcements were made by 343 Industries during the Halo World Championships, including the fact that it will be formally rebranding as Halo Studios and that it is developing several new games. Furthermore, the recently relaunched studio has announced that it would no longer be using the Slipspace Engine for Halo Infinite and will instead be developing all future projects on Unreal Engine.

The Announcement

The announcements were made in a seven-minute movie that was aired before the grand finals of the Halo World Championship. The video featured the outcomes of Project Foundry, an experimental project meant to demonstrate a Halo game created with the Unreal Engine.

• Though it's essentially a tech demo, it provides an overview of Xbox's main series' new direction following 2021's Halo Infinite.

• The resources that have gone into creating the Slipspace Engine throughout its development are only one reason why this is such a significant change for the Halo series.

• Because it was using tools from the early 2000s, the studio that was formerly known as 343 Industries had a famously difficult time with the Slipspace engine throughout the development of Halo Infinite.

• Nevertheless, it was anticipated to act as the starting point for the Halo Infinite series.

Interview

In an interview with Xbox Wire, art director Chris Matthews stated,

"Respectfully, some components of Slipspace are almost 25 years old." "Even though 343 was working on it nonstop, there are elements of Unreal that Epic has been working on for a while that we are not able to access in Slipspace and would have required a significant investment of time and money to try and duplicate."

• According to a rumor from early 2023, Halo's developers were prepared to restart the franchise following a significant reorganization within the firm that included switching to the Unreal Engine.

• The article also stated that while they were prototyping ideas, Halo's creators were concentrating on presenting new Halo games. It seems that Project Foundry is the result of that work.

• Under the direction of Pierre Hintze and Elizabeth Van Wyck, the recently renamed Halo Studios is attempting to advance and is currently developing several new titles.

• Following the resignation of studio general manager Bonnie Ross in 2022, and the departure of Xbox series veteran Joseph Staten in 2023, the three assumed prominent positions at the studio.

• The Xbox announced earlier this year that it is working "full speed ahead" on a next-generation successor to the Xbox Series X|S, which is why the engine and moniker have changed.

According to Hintze, "we had an excessive amount of attention focused on trying to establish the conditions to be successful in servicing Halo Infinite." "However, moving to Unreal allows us to concentrate entirely on creating numerous new experiences at the best quality imaginable."

Projects will be "ready when they're ready," according to Halo Studios. For now, keep checking back for a ton of additional insight on Podcast Unlock