In a nutshell

• Engine Switch: 343 Industries is transitioning all future Halo projects to Unreal Engine 5 from its proprietary Slipspace engine.
• Rebranding: The studio is rebranding itself as Halo Studios and has multiple new games in development.
• New Chapter: Studio Head Pierre Hintze emphasizes a new chapter for Halo, focusing on efficient development and meeting modern gamer expectations.

343 Industries has announced that all future Halo projects will be switching to Unreal Engine 5 from its proprietary Slipspace engine.

Alongside this news, 343 Industries has also announced that it will be changing its name to Halo Studios, and has confirmed that multiple new games are currently in development.

Halo “A New Dawn” Trailer

“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,” Studio Head Pierre Hintze says.

“We believe that the consumption habits of gamers have changed – the expectations of how fast their content is available,” says Hintze. “On Halo Infinite, we were developing a tech stack that was supposed to set us up for the future, and games at the same time.”

COO Elizabeth van Wyck says that “The way we made Halo games before doesn’t necessarily work as well for the way we want to make games for the future. So part of the conversation we had was about how we help the team focus on making games, versus making the tools and the engines.”

Familiarity is also a big part of this change, lessening the onboarding for new and current developers to create a more efficient process that will allow the studio to create games and updates with a focus that can satisfy fans.

As for the new projects, Hintze says that the team will focus more on digging deep and working quietly and will announce when they are ready. Do more and say less is a mantra that they will be taking to offer a better quality product for players.

“One of the things I really wanted to get away from was the continued teasing out of possibilities and ‘must-haves, We should do more and say less. For me, I really think it is important that we continue the posture which we have right now when it comes to our franchise—the level of humility, the level of servitude towards Halo fans.”

“We should talk about things when we have things to talk about, at scale. Today, it’s the first step–we’re showing Foundry because it feels right to do so—we want to explain our plans to Halo fans, and attract new, passionate developers to our team. The next step will be talking about the games themselves.”

Are you looking forward to these new projects?