343 rebrands as Halo Studios, working on multiple Unreal Engine 5 games

gamesindustry.biz:

Microsoft has announced several major changes to 343 Industries, the studio behind the Halo games, including a new name, a new engine, and the beginning of work on multiple new titles in its flagship shooter series.

343 Industries will now be known as Halo Studios with an Xbox Wire post adding that, as well as the rebranding, the developer is "seeing changes in culture, workflow, and how its teams are organised."

Central to this is the decision to move away from the studio's proprietary Slipspace Engine and the shift to Unreal Engine 5 – something that was first reported in 2023.

All future Halo projects will now be built with Epic Games' tech and multiple new games are now in development, with the announcement described as "a new dawn for Halo."

Speaking to Xbox Wire, leaders from the studio discussed the many reasons behind the switch, including the advantage of hiring staff already experienced in a widely-used engine rather than having to train them up on proprietary tech.

343 Industries previously had to dedicate "a large portion of its staff" to ongoing development and upkeep of Slipspace, but the team is now working with Epic Games to ensure Unreal Engine meets Halo's needs.

"The way we made Halo games before doesn't necessarily work as well for the way we want to make games for the future," said Halo Studios COO Elizabeth van Wyck. "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."

The company also emphasised that this is "beginning of this new chapter," and that there are no imminent plans to announce or release a new Halo game. Instead, updates and additions will continue for Halo Infinite while the next titles are in the works.

343 has been through several changes already in the wake of Halo Infinite's 2021 launch. It has been among the studios affected by widespread layoffs at Microsoft. It also saw a change of leadership when long-serving studio boss Bonnie Ross departed in 2022.