The Halo franchise is undergoing a transformation with developer 343 Industries announcing its rebranding to Halo Studios. This rebrand marks a new approach to development, along with the introduction of multiple new Halo projects.
This is the second time in history that the Halo series will be developed under a different name. The first three Halo games were developed by Bungie, followed by 343 Industries, which was established within Microsoft after Bungie’s decision to become independent.
“If you really break Halo down, there have been two very distinct chapters. Chapter 1 – Bungie. Chapter 2 – 343 Industries,” explained studio head Pierre Hintze in an Xbox Wire post. “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.”
The major change is transitioning from the proprietary Slipspace engine to Unreal Engine 5. Halo Infinite, the franchise’s latest mainline game, was created using the Slipspace engine but required significant internal maintenance. According to Bloomberg, the aging Bungie code used in the Slipspace engine partly contributed to delays in Infinite‘s development cycle, along with challenges related to contract workers and transitioning to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reports from Bloomberg in the past year indicated that the change to Unreal Engine was in response to previous disappointments. While Infinite had a positive launch, issues arose post-launch, particularly with the multiplayer mode. This necessitated the shift to Unreal Engine, enabling the team to focus on new projects.
“Respectfully, some components of Slipspace are almost 25 years old,” said art director Chris Matthews. “Although 343 was continuously developing it, there are aspects of Unreal that Epic has been developing for some time, which are unavailable to us in Slipspace — and would have required significant time and resources to replicate.”
“We had a disproportionate focus on trying to create the conditions to be successful in servicing Halo Infinite,” Hintze stated in the Halo Studios announcement. “[But switching to Unreal] allows us to put all the focus on making multiple new experiences at the highest quality possible.”
Halo Studios has been exploring Unreal Engine with Project Foundry, a showcase of how the Epic Games engine can be utilized with the Halo series. At the 2024 Halo World Championship, the company presented some examples of this collaboration. As for the new Halo games in development, details have not been released yet.
