Halo and developer 343 Industries are getting a reset, and the iconic series is set to undergo some fundamental changes. 343 Industries announced on Sunday that all future Halo games will be developed in Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5, with multiple new projects currently in development. The new Microsoft-owned studio will also be renamed Halo Studios, making extensive changes to its features to mark a “new chapter” in the series.
Multiple Halo games in development
At the Halo World Championship, 343 debuted new Halo footage rendered in Unreal Engine 5, showcasing three different environments and series protagonist Master Chief. 343 stated that this video is not from the Halo game in development, but is part of the “Foundry” project, which will serve as the basis for future Halo games.
The studio confirmed that multiple Halo games built with Unreal Engine 5 are in development, but did not provide any timeline for those games. 343 was last involved in 2021’s Halo Infinite.
Halo environment rendered in Unreal Engine 5
Image Credit: Microsoft/Halo Studios
Switch to Unreal Engine 5
In addition to the changes to Halo, 343 also announced that it is reorganizing and renaming Halo Studios to reflect the new beginning for the series. By switching to Unreal Engine, developers will focus more on making games instead of spending time improving their own sliding space engine.
“With all due respect, some components of Slipspace are nearly 25 years old,” the studio’s art director Chris Matthews said in an Xbox Wire post. “While 343 is continually developing it, there are aspects of Unreal Engine that Epic has been developing for some time that we cannot implement in Slipspace and would take a significant amount of time and resources to try and replicate,” he added.
343 (now Halo Studios) intends to reduce development time for future projects. The developers say a significant portion of their staff had to be allocated to developing and fine-tuning the Slipspace engine from previous projects. “With Halo Infinite, we are developing a technology stack designed to prepare us and the game for the future,” said studio head Pierre Hintze.
The developer is also reorganizing and expanding, setting up multiple teams to develop different Halo games simultaneously. While the footage from Project Foundry sets the tone for what’s to come, don’t expect a Halo game to launch anytime soon. Hintze said the studio will discuss game-related matters in a timely manner.
“When we have something to talk about, we should talk about it on a large scale,” he said. “Today is the first step — we’re showcasing Foundry because it feels right to do so — and we want to explain our plans to Halo fans and attract new, passionate developers to our team. The next step will be discussing the game itself.”
