Halo is such a behemoth of a video game franchise for Microsoft. However, the latest game failed to meet some of the expectations fans had. With Halo Infinite, players were almost given a thrilling experience, but as it stands, the developers might be back trying to figure out where to go with this franchise. That said, one has to wonder how things would have panned out if they had opted for Unreal Engine with their latest game.
There were reports that Halo Infinite developers at 343 Industries, now known as Halo Studios, were considering a change to the game engine being used in the development. Instead, the developers stuck with SlipSpace Engine. However, a new documentary pitch video has surfaced online, revealing that developers were close to making a significant change during development.
Halo Infinite Devs Considered Unreal Engine
Rebs Gaming has been an industry insider that has dug up quite a bit about the Halo franchise over the years. Recently, the YouTube channel discovered a video documentary created in 2017 at the studio. While this video was initially found on a former 343 Industries developer’s Vimeo profile, it has since been made private, so we’re left with going by Rebs Gaming’s discovery.
According to Rebs Gaming, this was a documentary pitch submitted to Microsoft to help fund the studio’s current vision for the game. Overall, the key takeaway from the video was the development studio’s visit to The Coalition to learn more about the Unreal Engine.
Their findings were that while Unreal Engine did have some benefits such as better lighting, the team found it would set development back by two years. They would essentially have to rework the game project from the base foundation. As a result, a vote showed that 85% of the staff decided to stick with the SlipSpace Engine, an engine that still showed promise for other areas of game development.
Of course, we know that Halo Studios is making the next game through Unreal Engine 5. This is a popular game engine, which could play a significant role in terms of general support. That could also make onboarding far easier for new developers who join in.
We don’t have any insight yet about the next game Halo Studios will bring to the marketplace. However, a rumor has been circulating online that we might see a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved, although it would scrap the multiplayer component. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what Halo Studios has been cooking up.
