- 343 Industries has rebranded to Halo Studios under the leadership of Pierre Hintze.
- All future Halo games are being made in Unreal Engine 5.
343 Industries, the developers behind Halo, are rebranding to Halo Studios. The studio is also shifting gears and switching to Epic Games’s Unreal Engine 5. Multiple Halo games are in development, built from the ground up with this new engine.
The New Changes
Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, is undergoing a rapid shift. Multiple new games, a new engine, and company-wide changes in culture, workflow, and organization were announced.
The announcement was made in an Xbox Wire post just before the 2024 Halo World Championship’s Grand Finals. This news comes right after announcing a new third-person mode for Halo Infinite earlier in the championship.
Halo Studios, now under Pierre Hintze’s leadership, is looking to create multiple ambitious new titles for the Halo franchise. Switching from the in-house Slipspace Engine to Unreal Engine 5 is a welcome change. Art Director Chris Mathews said, “Respectfully, some components of Slipspace are almost 25 years old.”
At release, Halo Infinite was met with mixed reactions by the community. It was supposed to be a system seller for Xbox but fell short of expectations. The visuals were a hot topic, with many criticizing the low-resolution textures.
At the Halo 2024 World Championship, Project Foundry- a glimpse at what future Halo titles could look like in Unreal Engine was revealed. A seven-minute video was released detailing the new visuals and the studio’s feedback on the new engine.
What This Means For The Future of Halo
The rebrand and the new announcements signify a new era of Halo. It’s clear Halo Studios is dedicated to the franchise and pivoting towards decisions that help them create better games.
The switch to Unreal Engine 5 means the team no longer has to dedicate resources to building and managing an engine. They can instead focus on the game itself and make sure it is visually pristine and performant at release.
While multiple new games are in development, the studio is still hard at work supporting Halo Infinite. With the current development time for “AAA” games, expect a new Halo by the end of this console generation or the beginning of a new one.
