343 Industries announced it is changing its name to Halo Studios at the Halo World Championships.
The next Halo games will be made in Unreal Engine 5. pic.twitter.com/nqTmsvVvcq
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) October 6, 2024
The company revealed it has multiple new games in development and is switching all future Halo development from its Slipspace Engine to Unreal Engine 5. The new studio showcased elements from the “Project Foundry” Unreal Engine research effort that has been ongoing for several years.
I really hope the Halo Studios team cooks and brings this all to life in a way that pushes the graphical boundaries of Halo again pic.twitter.com/k8vSJw5MUx
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 7, 2024
It featured Master Chief and Covenant elite designs, along with three biomes: a Cascades-type location, Flood-impacted Blightlands, and snowy Coldlands. “Respectfully, some components of Slipspace are almost 25 years old,” Halo Studios art director Chris Matthews said.
Switching to Unreal for Halo
The rumors were true. Halo is moving to Unreal Engine 5. Slipspace is no more. 343 (the name) is no more as well. Now it's Halo Studios.
There's some really nice test footage in here from their Project Foundry tech test. Take a look! https://t.co/1TkLEXDG5n
— Ryan McCaffrey (@DMC_Ryan) October 7, 2024
“Although 343 was developing it continuously, there are aspects of Unreal that Epic has been developing for some time, which are unavailable to us in Slipspace — and would have taken huge amounts of time and resources to try and replicate.”
glad to see those old halo > unreal engine rumors panned out. should streamline the pipeline a fair bit.
— Jez (@JezCorden) October 7, 2024
The company plans to hire new employees and have multiple teams working on several games at the same time using a centralized Unreal Engine 5 pipeline. Halo Studios did not reveal any specific projects or timelines. CEO Pierre Hintze simply stated that they’ll be “ready when they’re ready.”
The studio has been under the leadership of Hintze, GM Bryan Koski, and COO Elizabeth Van Wyck since studio GM Bonnie Ross left in 2022.
Previously, there were reports that 343 was “starting from scratch” on Halo development following layoffs and was shifting to Unreal Engine after struggling with its aging Slipspace platform. At the time, 343 Industries assured that it was “here to stay” despite rumors that Microsoft might shift the Halo franchise to other studios.
