343 Industries has revealed their ambitious new plans for the future of the Halo franchise.
On a post in the Xbox Wire blog, they revealed that 343 Industries is changing their name to Halo Studios, and that they are switching from the proprietary Slipspace Engine to Unreal 5.
Studio Head Pierre Hintze made it clear that this was a transformative change for the studio, and more than just marketing. In his words:
“If you really break Halo down, there have been two very distinct chapters. Chapter 1 – Bungie. Chapter 2 – 343 Industries. 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.”
This caps a tumultuous period for the studio following Halo Infinite’s release in 2021. The following year came with a management shakeup, as studio head Bonnie Ross left the company. The next two years saw news of layoffs and resignations from 343, as well as persistent rumors of poor management behind the scenes.
There was also a nasty series of rumors that Microsoft had to keep debunking, such as that the Halo franchise was being retired, or that 343 Industries would no longer be making Halo games themselves. While we reported that 343 Industries was clearly starting to find new hires as recently as last August, fans and even press seemed skeptical that Microsoft was really doing something with the franchise until today.
One rumor that turned out to be on the money was that 343 was moving to Unreal Engine. This move isn’t even that hard to explain – Unreal is the industry leading game engine, Slipspace is long obsolete. But 343 had real concerns that Halo on Unreal might not feel like the same game anymore, and that’s something Tekken players experienced firsthand.
So 343 actually started a new project, called Project Foundry. Much like the infamous 2011 The Legend of Zelda E3 demo, Project Foundry isn’t necessarily what the next Halo game will look like. It is more of a demo or a testing ground for 343, now called Halo Studios, to prototype making a Halo game on Unreal 5.
They tout the many challenges that they did come across in shifting engines, but what’s interesting is that there is no mention of The Coalition or its technical director Kate Rayner helping them figure the engine out. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they didn’t get assistance from them or other Xbox developers, but it sure seems like Halo Studios want to emphasize that this is their project first and foremost.
We’re all looking forward to learning more about Halo Studios, Project Foundry, and the next Halo games they are making. At this point, it’s highly likely they will be coming to the next generation of Xbox consoles.
In the meantime, you can watch Halo Studios’ Project Foundry video below.
