In a very surprising announcement, Halo developer 343 Industries, which was founded to takeover the Halo franchise from Bungie, has announced that it is being rebranded.
Now going by Halo Studios, the company also made a couple of other announcements in an Xbox Wire post. From now on, all Halo projects will be made in Unreal Engine 5, shifting away from the proprietary Slipspace Engine that was used to create Halo Infinite.
The video shown is what Halo Studios refers to as Foundry, which is neither a new game nor a “traditional tech demo.” What’s shown is supposed to be “a true reflection of what would be required for a new Halo game using Unreal, and a training tool for how to get there. Foundry has been made with the same rigor, process, and fidelity as a shipped game would be.”
“If you really break Halo down, there have been two very distinct chapters. Chapter 1 – Bungie. Chapter 2 – 343 Industries,” Studio Head Pierre Hintze said to Xbox Wire. “Now, I think we have an audience which is hungry for more. So we’re not just going to try improve the efficiency of development, but change the recipe of how we make Halo games. So, we start a new chapter today.”
The idea is that by switching over to the widely used Unreal Engine 5, Halo Studios will able to create games quicker and will be able to hire talented developers who don’t need to learn how Slipspace works.
“Respectfully, some components of Slipspace are almost 25 years old,” said Studio Art Director, Chris Matthews. “Although 343 were developing it continuously, there are aspects of Unreal that Epic has been developing for some time, which are unavailable to us in Slipspace – and would have taken huge amounts of time and resources to try and replicate.”
The Xbox Wire post frequently mentions multiple games being in the works, but details are thin on the ground. It does, however, mention that “it’s fair to say that a new Halo game isn’t imminent.”
Hintze also stated that the team has been intentionally quiet, as he believes “We should do more and say less.”
“We should talk about things when we have things to talk about, at scale,” Hinte said. “Today, it’s the first step – we’re showing Foundry because it feels right to do so – we want to explain our plans to Halo fans, and attract new, passionate developers to our team. The next step will be talking about the games themselves.”
The shift to Unreal Engine 5 is interesting because it will also theoritcally allow for easier porting. Given how Xbox is now willing to move some franchises over to the rival PlayStation, could this be another step toward some futurew in which Master Chief can be controlled with a Dualsense?
Ultimately though, all the graphical bells and whistles mean very little to a franchise that is built on its physics and game feel. Halo is beautiful, but its never been at the cutting edge of visuals. Hopefully, the newly named Halo Studios will remember this and keep their focus on the gameplay above all else.
