New Halo Games, Unreal Engine 5, Project Foundry, and More

Microsoft suddenly announced a major shakeup for the Halo series in early October 2024. The main studio responsible for the games, 343 Industries, is rebranding to Halo Studios, and multiple new games are being developed using Epic's Unreal Engine 5. This marks a departure from the Slipspace Engine that was built from the ground up for the most recent entry, Halo Infinite. In addition, Microsoft acknowledged past struggles and pledged a bright future for the series after Halo Infinite. There were tons of announcements and details, and this post rounds up everything that is known about the new Halo games in development and when to expect them. The new Halo Games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDgR1FRJnF8 In an official blog post, Microsoft confirmed that Halo Studios, the new title for 343 Industries, is working on multiple new entries in the franchise. These games remain a mystery. Furthermore, it remains unknown if Microsoft is developing each of these titles internally or if it has decided to partner with other studios. According to Joe Skrebels, editor-in-chief of Xbox Wire, Halo Studios is "at the beginning of this new chapter, not the final stages." As such, he said, "It's fair to say that a new Halo game isn't imminent." This means we will need to wait longer to hear an actual announcement. For now, Microsoft will continue to provide ongoing support for Halo Infinite through additional Operations and new updates to Forge. These updates will take place as Halo Studios works on future projects. When it comes to future titles, Microsoft remains quiet, but it has so far shown off a prototype called Project Foundry. It's not a new game or a tech demo. Instead, it's designed 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." Microsoft stated that the effort that was put into creating Foundry amounted to the "same rigor, process, and fidelity as a shipped game would be." The majority of what is seen in the Project Foundry video is "expected" to be featured in Halo Studios' future output. This demo showed off gorgeous biomes with mountains and waterfalls, all reminiscent of classic Halo. What platforms are the new Halo games releasing on? Microsoft has yet to disclose which platforms it plans to target for the next generation of Halo games. It is expected, of course, that future titles will be released on Xbox consoles, including whatever new system Microsoft is currently working on. It is reasonable to expect that Microsoft will also plan to launch the new Halo games on PC. With Halo Studios now working with Unreal Engine 5, it may be easier to port the series to PlayStation, but this is not evenly remotely confirmed. Microsoft plans to bring more of its Xbox games to PlayStation and Switch in general, however. Unreal vs. Slipspace The biggest announcement outside of the confirmation of new titles is that Halo Studios is shifting away from its proprietary engine, Slipspace, in favor of Unreal Engine 5. According to Pierre Hintze, Halo Studios head, 343 required an entire team to develop and upkeep Slipspace. Because gamers want content faster these days, Slipspace led to a lot of bottlenecks. Therefore, switching to Unreal Engine 5 should provide them with a new level of efficiency and speed. According to Elizabeth van Wyck, Halo Studios COO, "The way we made Halo games before doesn't necessarily work as well for the way we want to make games for the future. So part of the conversation we had was about how we help the team focus on making games, versus making the tools and the engines." Chris Matthews, the Studio art director, said Slipspace failed to meet modern standards. "Respectfully, some components of Slipspace are almost 25 years old," he said. "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." Creating Halo Infinite at the same time as the Slipspace Engine was "incredibly difficult", according to Patrick Wren, a former designer for Halo Infinite's multiplayer. It was comparable to "trying to build a boat and race it at the same time," Wren said. Although some people believe that the transition to Unreal Engine 5 may impact Halo's trademark "feel", Van Wyck said the team believes Epic's tools will allow the team to make "Halo games that respect and reflect the true soul of Halo while also being able to build games that can deliver on the scale and ambition of content that players want." "It's not just about how long it takes to bring a game to market, but how long it takes for us to update the game, bring new content to players, [and] adapt to what we’re seeing our players want," Van Wyck said. "Part of that is [in how we build the game], but another part is the recruiting. How long does it take to ramp somebody up to be able to actually create assets that show up in your game?" Microsoft's vision Hintze has stated that the Halo series has been through two chapters. Chapter 1 was during Bungie's years, the studio that created the series, and their contributions via Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: Reach, and more. Chapter 2 was when 343 Industries took over, composed of many ex-Bungie employees, released Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Halo Infinite most recently. Now that fans are "hungry for more", the team is entering Chapter 3 with the aim to "improve the efficiency of development" and "change the recipe" of how traditional Halo titles are made. In addition, Hintze alluded to how Microsoft made these major announcements to encourage new people to come work for Halo Studios. In a video documentary, Hintze assumed some humility, acknowledging that "Halo Infinite was the last remnant of how we made Halo games in the past. That was our recipe. And what we're doing right now is changing our recipe." The new team Microsoft announced "changes in culture, workflow, and how its teams are organized" to help the team succeed in building the future of Halo. Hintze and Van Wyck are leading Halo Studios from the top, and Matthews (who previously served as co-founder and studio art director at Ridgeline Games) is in the role of studio art director at Halo Studios. What is coming next? Microsoft and Halo Studios have yet to provide further details on when the next Halo games may be released or anything that is currently happening at the studio. As of the moment, the rebranding of 343 Industries to Halo Studios and the transition to Unreal Engine 5 is a means to help recruit staff to build on the vision. Project Foundry helps to showcase future goals. "At the end of the day, if we build the games that our players want to play, that's how we'll be successful," Van Wyck said. "That's what should motivate what we build. That's also what this structure has done--we want the people that are day-in-day-out making the games to be the ones to make the decisions on the games."

Recent Posts