343 Industries Is Now Halo Studios. Developer Bets on Unreal Engine 5
The former 343 Industries is changing both its name and its engine. Halo Studios will use Unreal Engine 5 to make the Halo series amazing with graphics once again.
343 Industries is now Halo Studios. The company is also switching to a new engine. This information was conveyed by the creators of Halo: Infinite in a video presenting the freshly renamed team.
The developers followed the lead of many other studios and decided to abandon their proprietary technology in favor of Unreal Engine 5, which is already being used to build "many projects" by Halo Studios. As the creators argue, the original Halo series was a "visual show" and was at the forefront of gaming in terms of visuals. This is what the new installments of the series must be like, a taste of which is given by the material provided by the creators.
The video that you can watch below features three landscapes created as part of the Project Foundry - an "interdisciplinary research project" aimed at "testing the creative potential of Unreal Engine for the new generation of Halo games".
We've heard before that the old Slipcase engine may have been the cause of problems with Halo Infinite. Apparently, it wasn't a particularly accessible technology after years of development, which allegedly resulted in Halo Infinite's problematic development and slow support after launch (via Jason Schreier from Bloomberg).
Players commenting on the studio's name change seem to be divided. Some people consider the mention of the visual layer to be a misconception on the part of the team, arguing that it was not the graphics that made the previous Halo games so beloved. It's also no secret that not all Halo fans have affection for the former 343 Industries, especially after the relatively early abandonment of Infinite (although by that time the game had already received the content that fans missed at the premiere).
However, many people point out that using a ready-made, proven engine will enable Halo Studios to focus on these "more important" elements: gameplay and level design. A similar goal was most likely pursued by other studios that abandoned proprietary technologies, often after "adventures" with their own engines (see CD Projekt RED).
It is worth adding that rumors about 343 Industries switching to Unreal Engine have already appeared along with reports of layoffs in early 2023. As reported by Bloomberg and Windows Central, at least 95 employees have left the studio, partly as a result of the conflict between supporters and opponents of abandoning the Slipcase engine.
