At yesterday’s Halo World Championships, developer 343 Industries announced that it is officially changing its name to Halo Studios. The company also revealed that it has multiple new games in the pipeline and will switch all future Halo development from its own Slipspace Engine to Unreal Engine 5.
In a YouTube video (below), the new studio showcased elements of its “Project Foundry” Unreal Engine research effort, which has been ongoing for the past few years. It’s just a tech demo for now, but it shows Elite designs for Master Chief and the Covenant, as well as three biomes, including a cascade-type location, a flooded Brightlands, and a snowy Coldlands. .
“With all due respect, some components of Slipspace are almost 25 years old. 343 was in continuous development, but there are aspects of Unreal that Epic has been developing for a while that are no longer available. ”Recreating us in slipspace would have required an enormous amount of time and resources. ”
The company plans to hire new employees and use a centrally managed UE5 pipeline to have multiple teams working on multiple games at the same time. Halo Studios hasn’t revealed specific projects or schedules, with CEO Pierre Hintze saying only, “We’ll be ready when we’re ready.” Since studio GM Bonnie Ross retires in 2022, the studio has been under the direction of Hintze, GM Brian Kosky, and COO Elizabeth Van Wyk.
Some of this information was leaked in early 2023, reporting that 343 companies were “starting from scratch” with Halo development after layoffs. The studio is said to be moving to Unreal Engine after struggling with the aging Slipspace platform. At the time, 343 Industries asserted that it was “here to stay” following rumors that Microsoft could move the Halo franchise to another studio.
