In a very surprising announcement, Halo developer 343 Industries, the company formed to take over the Halo franchise from Bungie, has announced that it will be changing its name.
The company, now renamed Halo Studios, also made several other announcements in an Xbox Wire post. From now on, all Halo projects will be produced in Unreal Engine 5 and will no longer use the proprietary Slipspace engine used to build Halo Infinite.
The video shown is what Halo Studios calls Foundry, and it’s neither a new game nor a “traditional technology demo.” The content presented should be a “true reflection of what it takes to play Unreal’s new Halo game, as well as the training tools for how to achieve this. Foundry is produced with the same rigor, process, and fidelity as the released game.”
“If you really break down Halo, there are two distinct chapters. Chapter 1 – Bungie. Chapter 2 – 343 Industries,” studio head Pierre Hintze told Xbox Wire. “Right now, I think we have an audience that’s hungry for more. So not only are we trying to make development more efficient, but we’re also trying to change our approach to development how We make Halo games. So, we begin a new chapter today.
The idea is that by switching to the widely used Unreal Engine 5, Halo Studios will be able to create games faster and hire talented developers who don’t need to understand how Slipspace works.
“With all due respect, some components of Slipspace are nearly 25 years old,” said studio art director Chris Matthews. “While 343 is constantly developing it, there are aspects of Unreal Engine that Epic has been developing for some time that we just can’t achieve in Slipspace – and would take a lot of time and resources to try and replicate.”
Xbox Wire posts often mention multiple games in development, but specific details are sparse. However, it does mention that “it’s fair to say that a new Halo game won’t be coming anytime soon.”
Hintze also said that the team deliberately remained silent because he believed “we should do more and talk less.”
“When we have something to talk about, we should talk about it on a large scale,” Hint 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 steps will be discussed The game itself.
The move to Unreal Engine 5 is interesting because in theory it will also allow for easier porting. Considering Xbox is now willing to move some franchises to rival PlayStation, could this be another step in the future where Master Chief can be controlled via Dualsense?
But ultimately, all the graphical bells and whistles mean little in a series built on physics and gameplay feel. Halo is beautiful, but it’s never at the forefront of visual effects. Hopefully the newly named Halo Studios will remember this and focus on gameplay.
