Halo's Unreal Engine 5 shift sparked the first optimism I've felt for Xbox's flagship in ages, and pretty graphics aren't the reason

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The decision to bring Halo to Unreal Engine 5 might be exactly what the series needs.

Halo Studios
Master Chief holding Halo's iconic Magnum pistol in the Unreal Engine 5-based Project Foundry. (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
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One of the biggest Xbox announcements of 2024 came on Sunday evening when, during the Halo World Championship 2024 esports event, Halo developer 343 Industries announced a rebrand to "Halo Studios" and a shift to Unreal Engine 5 — sunsetting the Slipspace Engine the studio built for 2021's Halo Infinite. Shortly afterward, it was confirmed that all future Halo games will be built on Epic Games' tech stack, and that it's already being used as the foundation for multiple projects in active development.

The news was delivered in a seven-minute long studio update trailer the developers labelled "A New Dawn," in which various members of the Halo Studios team presented Project Foundry — a tech demo built internally to showcase what many of Halo's classic designs and environments might look like in an Unreal Engine 5 game. What has me truly happy about this switch, though, aren't pretty graphics; instead, it's the stated goal of helping "the team focus on making games, versus making the tools and the engines."

In an interview on Xbox Wire, various leads from Halo Studios zeroed in on the fact that "some components of Slipspace are almost 25 years old," and that there was a need for "a large portion of its staff simply to develop and upkeep the engine" — confirming much of what was said about Slipspace in a report last year. With the move to Epic's far more modern engine, developers hope to reorganize their resources and streamline their creation process, ultimately addressing "how long it takes for us to update the game, bring new content to players, [and] adapt to what we’re seeing our players want."

A New Dawn | Halo Studios - YouTube A New Dawn | Halo Studios - YouTube
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Reading those words has given me the first bit of optimism I've felt for Xbox's flagship franchise in a long time, as I'd argue the biggest reason why Halo Infinite failed to generate long-term player interest is because it was bereft of an adequate content suite for well over a year. Compared to previous Halo releases that launched feature-complete and gave fans plenty of ways to play out of the gate, Halo Infinite's paltry collection of playlists were frustratingly meager, and even beloved modes like Infection, Firefight, and the critically important mapmaking tool Forge didn't come until late 2022 or beyond.

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It's my hope that with Unreal Engine 5, Halo Studios will be able to develop future experiences far more efficiently, hopefully ensuring that we're never left with another Halo 5: Guardians or Halo Infinite situation where a Halo game releases with scant offerings and only gets a full content spread months or years later. I'm also looking forward to seeing how "aspects of Unreal" that "would have taken huge amounts of time and resources to try and replicate" in Slipspace, such as the engine's impressive rendering and lighting tech, will influence future iterations of Halo's worlds.

One thing I'm definitely iffy about in the wake of Halo Infinite's rocky development is the studio's decision to start working on multiple projects, but again, the Unreal shift — along with multiple recent leadership changes — gives me a reason to temper my skepticism. The use "of the industry-leading engine" should certainly make onboarding new developers, growing the team, and hiring contractors for outside help easier (Halo Studios has multiple positions open), though just last year, it was hit particularly hard by Microsoft layoffs. 

An Unreal Engine 5 scene of Master Chief dueling a Covenant Elite. (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

At the end of the day, we won't know whether this "new dawn" for Halo pays off until the fruits of Halo Studios' labor is actually in our hands, and since "a new Halo game isn’t imminent," that won't happen for a long time. With that said, I think a big shakeup and a major overhaul to the way it's developed is something Halo sorely needs, and I'm glad it's getting that.

Whatever's next for the legendary sci-fi property will be playable through Xbox Game Pass, as all of Microsoft's first-party releases are. Halo Infinite's single player campaign is accessible through the all-you-can-eat subscription service now, as is the  Master Chief Collection that bundles all of the pre-Xbox One Halo games in one modernized package.

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Brendan Lowry
Brendan Lowry

Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he's been an avid fan since childhood. He's been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you'll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he's not writing or gaming, there's a good chance he's either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once. Follow him on X (Twitter).

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3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Ron-F
    While I hope you're correct, I can't share your optimism. Halo has always boasted its unique engine, granting developers the freedom to craft the game according to their vision. With the shift to Unreal, they'll need to play to its strengths and navigate its limitations. Moreover, games built on the same engine often share visual traits, potentially weakening Halo's distinctive identity.
    Reply
  • fjtorres5591
    Ron-F said:
    While I hope you're correct, I can't share your optimism. Halo has always boasted its unique engine, granting developers the freedom to craft the game according to their vision. With the shift to Unreal, they'll need to play to its strengths and navigate its limitations. Moreover, games built on the same engine often share visual traits, potentially weakening Halo's distinctive identity.
    But what price vision if they spend 90% of the time and money building the tool and 10% of the time coding the game? Especially when no other game uses the engine.

    In the Bungie era the games came out every 3 years but it took 6 years to get Infinite (without Forge) out and it's been three years already with crickets chirping on the campaign side. Where's the vision? Going into getting the online right?

    Or maybe they've been working on Unreal already?

    The key point being made in the blog post is that with a proprietary engine new hires have to start by learning the engine, not developing. By going to Unreal the new hires start working on production code sooner. And don't forget, XBOX layoffs have come mostly from support staff and management but other studio shutdowns and game cancellations have released experienced coders. Going to Unreal lets them fish in troubled waters as it were.

    It's a business and the economics of the 2024 gaming business are not the economics of 1999. Not many games can return profits on $300-500M budgets, even games that rack in $400M at launch. A big number, yes, but after 6 years?

    Something had to change.
    Reply
  • 1078mac
    I need more info about 343 or Halo studios to be optimistic. Infinite was a great game ultimately let down by poor management, a pandemic and unkept promises i.e. coop and very late forge. I don't trust 343 to get this done. Infinite was a wasted opportunity from a single player and coop perspective (no dlc) and from a multiplayer perspective too. Why should we trust this studio to get it right just because they are using UE5?! I see no reason for optimism yet
    Reply