Halo developers shelve own game development engine for Unreal

The developers behind the iconic Halo franchise have announced a shift in their approach to game development. 343 Industries, now rebranded as Halo Studios, will be abandoning their proprietary Slipspace Engine in favour of Unreal Engine 5 for all future Halo projects.

This revelation came during the 2024 Halo World Championship, where fans were treated to a surprise video showcasing new visuals created using Unreal Engine 5. The footage depicted familiar Halo landscapes with a fresh twist, including Forerunner architecture, icy fields, and even areas consumed by The Flood.

The decision to switch to Unreal Engine 5 is driven by a desire to streamline development and meet evolving player expectations. “The way we made Halo games before doesn’t necessarily work as well for the way we want to make games for the future,” explained Elizabeth van Wyck, COO of Halo Studios..

Developing a game engine alongside building AAA games is a resource-intensive process, it turns out. By adopting Unreal, Halo Studios aims to focus more on game creation rather than engine maintenance. This shift is expected to accelerate development cycles and allow for multiple teams to work on different games simultaneously.

Chris Matthews, Studio Art Director, highlighted the benefits of Unreal’s advanced features: “Nanite and Lumen [Unreal’s rendering and lighting technologies] offer us an opportunity to do that in a way that the industry hasn’t seen before.”

The studio has been quietly working on a research project dubbed “Project Foundry” to validate their capabilities with Unreal Engine 5. While not a new game or traditional tech demo, Foundry represents a rigorous exploration of what’s possible for future Halo titles using the new engine.

Pierre Hintze, Head of Halo Studios, emphasised that much of what was showcased in Foundry is expected to appear in upcoming projects. The team created three distinct biomes: a Pacific Northwest-inspired landscape, an icy “Coldlands” region, and the “Blightlands,” a world consumed by the parasitic Flood.

Alongside the engine change, Halo Studios is undergoing a cultural and organisational shift. The team is restructuring to allow game development teams more autonomy in decision-making and is committed to seeking earlier and wider feedback from players.

While Halo Infinite will continue to be supported through the Slipspace Engine, multiple new Halo games using Unreal Engine 5 are already in development. However, fans should not expect an imminent release, as the studio is focused on doing the work rather than making premature announcements.

“We should talk about things when we have things to talk about, at scale. Today, it’s the first step – we’re showing Foundry because it feels right to do so – we want to explain our plans to Halo fans, and attract new, passionate developers to our team,” Hintze concluded.

Halo Studios has numerous open positions for interested developers.

(Image Credit: Halo Studios)

See also: Unity scraps its ‘Runtime Fee’ following developer backlash

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Tags: coding, development, game development, gaming, halo, halo studios, programming, unreal engine, unreal engine 5, video games