Halo Infinite seems to be all over the gaming news right now, and sadly, not for the reasons you'd want it to be. Following Microsoft's recent round of company layoffs, we've been hearing a lot about restructuring at Halo dev 343 Industries, and a new report sheds even more light on what looks like a major shift for one of Xbox's biggest franchises.
To sum things up, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier has gone on record to say that 343 Industries has, after a drawn out process, decided to move over to Unreal Engine for its next Halo project. That project is supposedly 'Project Tatanka', the rumoured battle royale game being co-developed by Certain Affinity. What exact shape this project will take is reportedly up in the air as well, as the game is still evolving.
"This switch [to Unreal Engine] will start with a new game code-named Tatanka, according to people familiar with the plans. That project, which 343 is developing alongside the Austin, Texas-based game studio Certain Affinity, started off as a battle royale but may evolve in different directions, the people said."
The report also says that there's a chance Unreal Engine could be the toolset of choice for mainline Halo games in future, although that future is apparently still very much up in the air at Xbox and 343 Industries right now.
Elsewhere, the report sheds more light on the layoff situation, specifically at 343 Industries, where we've already heard various reports about major cuts. Bloomberg says that their source claims "at least 95 people at the company have lost their jobs" in the recent reshuffle, which is no small number.
As usual with these kinds of reports, we must warn you that none of this is official information right now and it's all worth taking with a 'wait and see' approach. Schreier and Bloomberg do have a solid track record though, so major changes could be well be afoot for Master Chief and company in the coming months if this report is accurate.
What do you make of this? Would Unreal Engine make a good fit for Halo? Let us know your thoughts.
[source bloomberg.com]
Comments 28
Good news imo.
Halo + UE5 ? Sounds good to me 👍👍👍
What a cluster**** the Halo Infinite development has been.
Nothing more to say really.
I love the Halo games too.
How long before a new single player game?
Years probably.
This is absolutely the right direction to go. Development is a lot more flexible using popular well supported tools. That said I would like to see a different studio get a chance at Halo, I feel like 343 have had their chance and it was mixed at best.
Wow and I thought they had created a whole new beginner for Halo Infinite.
Oh well see you in about five years new Halo campaign.
Lets really hope Microsoft, Xbox and Phil have learnt a massive lesson to move forward, with all management of all their studios.
Good. They need to start over from scratch. Then they need to ditch this open world Games As A Service bs and create a tightly written, exciting, epic LINEAR showcase that the series used to be. I think back to the "holy ****" moments in Halo Reach and Halo 3 and I miss those days.
It's the right decision though, so that's good at least.
@Kaloudz Asset transferring has become more and more accessible than it used to be. So, I'm sure they can for a starting point.
RIP old halo engine glitches.
@BrilliantBill
Unfortunately that is what is required sometimes
And I hope it has woken Xbox Microsoft up a bit.
Maybe it had to happen and will improve management in the near future.
Halo lacked features. Moving to a new game engine doesn't make sense. the Infinite campaign was great, I wanted more of that open halo style of playing. It's a shame what's happening over there.
I hope the BR is still a part of Tatanka. I really want that.
Yeah, I know, it’s not very hardcore gamer of me, but I just really feel like Halo BR could be funny.
If it makes feature creation easier I’m all for it. You have to have a plan first though. You can’t just call something live service with no plan.
We don't need a battle royale game...they are on there way out.... Don't know why they struggled so much with that engine they built...the engine they built for halo 4 was great at the time...one best looking 360 games
Try to see if I'm reading this right. Essentially they are going to migrate the current code into new code in UE5? Basically they are doing a remake?
I think I am done with Halo. They are going to need to knock the next game out of the park and tie up all the losses storylines they have. Then I may return.
I’ve been a supporter of 343 and the games they’ve made, especially Infinite, but there’s no denying it has been a bit of a disaster. I dont want to make people losing their jobs a positive thing, but this massive restructure and overhaul of the Halo franchise is the right move. They really need to take some time and rethink and retool what Halo really means to Xbox and to the studio. It’s obvious 343 has great passion for Halo, and has done some incredible things with the narrative, but it’s time for a reboot…again. I don’t mind the wait for more story content if it means they can get this whole thing back on track.
If a new Halo can be in an easier engine so they aren't stuck in development hell next time, great - I just hope they manage to keep the look and feel of it.
However the story underlines that while some good work has been done on Infinite, the instant it was out they've had two tribes fighting over Slipspace vs Unreal, doing demos etc instead of any campaign expansions or much in the way of multiplayer stuff.
My hope now is the situation is under control, and 343i can work on a new Unreal Halo but have a couple of support development teams (probably external) who can carry on the Infinite multiplayer work, and maybe even create new campaigns - as it seems insane to waste all the engine work so far when a dev team could create new story content basically just using Forge and some new art and voice assets...
At least that way, we get some new content, MS recoup some of their losses and Infinite gets at least a few years of support given their promises ffs
@Jslade I'm honestly thinking do a new game with 343i in Unreal, but give us new story content in Infinite using external devs with some internal Slipspace dev support and voices.
They've spent so long on the engine and users know how powerful Forge is - a few campaigns knocked up, sold to us as DLC with new Chief and Weapon voice content and we're kept happy till the next game, they get more money for little extra investment...
There is so much potential for this universe/IP. The mechanics are still there and it's consistently one of the better FPS series in that sense alongside the Doom games, Titanfall 2 and Wolfenstein. They really need a fresh writing team, new/varied environments and a general overhaul of what has become rather stale and old hat.
Sounds good, please finish infinite story !
@Savage_Joe that's a great point! UR ALL THE WAY BAYBEEEEE!
I feel like the Slipspace engine has become the scapegoat for all of Halo's problems and Unreal is being put on a pedestal as an easy fix. Im sure Slipspace caused development delays but Halo has way more issues than can be fixed with an engine swap.
Exactly what I've been hoping for. Bring on Halo 7 powered by UE5.
Oh god here we go again
Its not a new engine that was needed, it was new devs to bring fresh thinking to a tired ip.
When I look at the state of Halo, its not its engine which is holding it back....
Slipspace Engine is sweet and good. No need to swap
Wasn't infinite a soft reboot? So...starting over from a soft reboot is what.
Phil just needs to bite the bullet and admit that 343 is a bad call from the getgo.
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