Microsoft seems to be gearing up for the next steps of the Halo franchise and starting to turn away from 2021’s Halo Infinite. While this last entry in the franchise had plenty of positives, it remains a fairly divisive and peculiar entry in the longstanding and iconic FPS series, which puts a lot of pressure on whatever project will come next.
Very little is currently known about what the next entry to the Halo franchise will entail, although there are a few factors regarding the project’s development that bode quite well for the huge task that the game has ahead of itself. It remains to be seen if the many lessons learned from Halo Infinite will play a big role in what the franchise’s next release looks like, but the massive structural changes to 343 Industries and the recent hiring sprees by Microsoft for the title appear to bode quite well for fans.
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The Changes to Halo’s Development Process Offer Cause for Optimism About the Next Game
There were high hopes around Halo Infinite when the game launched in 2021, with many fans resonating with the title’s renewed focus on Master Chief as the driving force of Halo‘s storyline. It is no secret that Infinite‘s core gameplay was extremely ambitious in terms of how it differentiated from the series’ norm, opting for an open-world campaign alongside new movement and combat mechanics like a grappling hook.
This, combined with Halo Infinite launching as a day-one Xbox Game Pass release, brought a huge amount of attention to the IP, yet the game’s overall legacy is one of squandered potential and a desire for something that its controversial live-service multiplayer approach struggled to deliver. With close to four years having passed since Halo‘s last mainline game, it is no wonder that fans are growing restless in the wait for something new. Luckily, there have already been some huge announcements for the future of Halo.
343 Industries took over the Halo IP from Bungie in 2012, leaving a reputation of mixed success. Then, it was announced in October 2024 that the studio would re-brand to Halo Studios alongside a big shake-up of studio leadership and a focused hiring process. Regardless of the reasoning behind this change, it stands as a clear new era for Halo as a franchise, offering both fresh and veteran developers a clean slate to present the next big Halo game with fewer historic hang-ups or reservations from some fans.
While nothing is confirmed in terms of a new Halo project, the recent announcements by Halo Studios seem to point towards a new project being revealed in the near future.
A New Game Engine and a Renewed Development Team Could Define Halo’s Next Steps
The change to Halo Studios also came with the news that the next Halo game would be developed using Unreal Engine 5 as opposed to 343’s very own Slipspace Engine, with this further cementing the notion that the franchise’s next release will be a huge opportunity to move away from its recent history and firmly into a brand-new age. Recent employment listings for Halo Studios concern positions for concept artists, graphical artists, UX designers, and narrative system designers, showing a real big push of new talent is at the forefront of Halo‘s future.
While Microsoft may have wanted Halo Infinite to have more of a long-lasting competitive impact on the industry, the recent shake-ups to 343 Industries and the creation of Halo Studios put a decidedly positive spin on the franchise’s future prospects. The ethos behind the Halo Studios re-branding seems to put the feel of the franchise’s iconic origins back to the forefront of future development, which is a good sign that Halo‘s next steps may live up to the pressure and high expectations that surround it.
- Released
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December 8, 2021
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood, Mild Language, Violence
- Publisher(s)
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Xbox Game Studios