Halo Studios Ushers in a New Era with Unreal Engine and Multiple Game Projects

The future of Halo is becoming clearer. During the Halo World Championships on Sunday, 343 Industries made several significant announcements, including that it will officially be rebranding as Halo Studios and is currently working on multiple new titles. In a major shift, the studio also confirmed that all upcoming projects will be developed using Unreal Engine, moving away from the Slipspace Engine that powered Halo Infinite.

These announcements were made in a seven-minute video shown ahead of the Halo World Championship grand finals, which highlighted the results of Project Foundry — an experimental initiative showcasing a Halo game built with Unreal Engine. Although primarily a tech demo, it offers a glimpse into a new era for Xbox’s flagship franchise following the release of Halo Infinite in 2021.

This marks a major transition for the Halo series, especially considering the significant investment made into the Slipspace Engine during its development. 343 Industries faced well-documented struggles with Slipspace while developing Halo Infinite, partly due to its reliance on tools from the early 2000s. Despite the challenges, Slipspace was initially expected to support future Halo games.

“Respectfully, some parts of Slipspace are nearly 25 years old,” art director Chris Matthews explained in an interview with Xbox Wire. “Although 343 was constantly improving it, Unreal has been evolving for years, offering tools that we just couldn’t replicate without significant time and effort.”

A report from early 2023 indicated that Halo’s developers were ready to reset the series after major changes within the studio, including a shift to Unreal Engine. That same report noted the team was focused on pitching new Halo games and prototyping ideas. Project Foundry appears to be the result of those efforts.

Now known as Halo Studios, the team is pushing forward under the leadership of Pierre Hintze and Elizabeth Van Wyck. They stepped into key roles following the departure of studio GM Bonnie Ross in 2022 and longtime series veteran Joseph Staten’s exit from Xbox in 2023. The rebranding and transition to Unreal Engine also come as Xbox has indicated it’s moving “full speed ahead” on a next-gen successor to the Xbox Series X|S.

“We were overly focused on creating the right conditions to support Halo Infinite,” says Hintze. “[Switching to Unreal] allows us to fully focus on delivering multiple new high-quality experiences.”