343 Industries, the studio behind the latest Halo Infinite game has been rebranded to Halo Studios. The rebrand signals a new start for the studio as it undergoes many years of new Halo game development. Along with the name change, Halo Studios has confirmed that all new games will be developed in Unreal Engine 5 going forward. The studio teased players with a closer look at some in-engine footage.
According to the announcement, multiple new Halo games are in development at Halo Studios. The rebrand marks the beginning of a new journey for the series while at the same time, it will introduce changes to the workplace and how teams are organized. Studio Head Pierre Hintze says this move is a “turning of a page”:
“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.”
Of course, the Unreal Engine 5 news is big for the franchise. This sees the games move away from the previous Slipspace Engine which has been a staple for many years. Studio Art Director, Chris Matthew says that many aspects of the Slipspace engine are over 25 years old now. He says that many aspects of Unreal seemed appealing to the Halo series. These aspects would have taken years to develop internally for the old engine.
“One of the primary things we’re interested in is growing and expanding our world so players have more to interact with and more to experience. Nanite and Lumen [Unreal’s rendering and lighting technologies] offer us an opportunity to do that in a way that the industry hasn’t seen before. As artists, it’s incredibly exciting to do that work.”
At the moment Halo Studios hasn’t been clear as to what fans can expect from the Halo series. We know the studio is working on new “games” but the timeline of these projects is still unknown.
Fans of the series, however, have not taken the news with much positivity. Many of them have raised concerns over the studio’s emphasis on visuals over game quality. Likely to make up for the controversial reception surrounding Halo Infinite. One fan says that Halo was never just a graphical showcase. It was just a fun game. They say that if Halo isn’t fun, the move to Unreal Engine 5 won’t mean a thing.
Whatever happens, we know new Halo games are coming our way. Check out the in-depth studio dive below in the meantime.
Source: Microsoft Blog / YouTube
