By Tom Warren , a senior editor and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft is

The future of Halo is being built with Unreal Engine 5

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2024-10-07 16:00:08

By Tom Warren , a senior editor and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.

Microsoft is moving its Halo development to Unreal Engine 5, after more than a year of rumors of an engine switch following a leadership overhaul at 343 Industries, layoffs, and other changes. 343 Industries is now becoming Halo Studios as part of this engine change announcement, hoping to mark a new chapter in the history of Halo.

Halo moving to Unreal Engine 5 is being positioned as the first step of a transformation for Halo Studios to change its technology, structure, processes, and even culture. “We’re not just going to try improve the efficiency of development, but change the recipe of how we make Halo games,” says Pierre Hintze, studio head at Halo Studios.

The team building Halo will move from the studio’s Slipspace Engine to Unreal, after the proprietary engine it built for Halo Infinite became difficult to use and strained development. Halo Studios has had to dedicate a lot of staff to developing the Slipspace Engine, and parts of it are almost 25 years old.