According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, the future of Halo is unreal. In an article published Tuesday, Schreier wrote that “late last year, when former studio head Bonnie Ross and engine lead David Berger left and Pierre Hintze took over, [developer 343 Industries] decided to switch to Unreal.” The change is just one detail in a report that outlines the challenges 343 faced during the development of Halo Infinite and the impact of Microsoft’s recent layoffs.
At least 95 employees were laid off at 343, according to Schreier, a number Microsoft had not disclosed. The layoffs affected “dozens of veterans, including top directors and contractors, on whom the studio relies heavily,” the report said. “Those temps were given just a few days’ notice before their contracts expired, according to people familiar with the process.”
343 remains the primary developer behind Halo Infinite and future Halo games, but the report clarifies how not clear the road to that future currently looks like. It describes Halo’s existing Slipspace engine as “based largely on old code from the 1990s and early 2000s” and says it was “the source of headaches” for some of Infinite’s development. Unreal development will reportedly begin with a new project, codenamed Tatanka, being developed in collaboration with regular Halo contributors Certain Affinity.
Our colleagues from Windows Central reported about Tatanka last year, called it a battle royale mode that would be compatible with Halo Infinite’s Forge tools. Windows Central confirmed detailing that 343 Industries plans to move development to Unreal, writing “there was a fierce tug-of-war internally over the change, with one camp of developers demanding the move and another arguing that Halo should stay on Slipspace.” According to Windows Central, there was also a version of Tatanka built on Halo’s existing Slipspace engine; it may be quite some time before we see the results of Halo on Unreal Engine.
After 343 Industries leaders have repeatedly called Halo Infinite a platform for the “next 10 years of Halo,” the most surprising detail in Bloomberg’s report is that no new campaign missions or expansions are in development. According to Bloomberg’s sources, “Developers were prototyping in the Unreal Engine and pitching ideas for new Halo games instead of working on new missions for Halo Infinite.” The report adds that many of those developers have been laid off during the recent budget cuts and only Infinite’s multiplayer is currently being worked on.
At the time of writing, Microsoft has not responded to a request for comment.