The technology transition at 343 Industries (now Halo Studios, as we reported earlier) hasn’t been so smooth.

According to YouTuber RebsGaming, 343 Industries was working on Halo Infinite 2 before Microsoft made a drastic change to the franchise’s plans. In December 2021, after the release of Halo Infinite’s story, the studio immediately started working on the sequel using the Slipspace engine. They had high hopes of making significant gameplay improvements in the sequel.

However, plans changed when 343 Industries’ management was replaced in September 2022. Bonnie Ross was replaced by Pierre Hintze, and the new executives set Unreal Engine 5 as the technology to be used, cancelling Halo Infinite 2. The studio members were also asked to get used to Epic Games’ technology, which lasted until early 2023, at which point Microsoft’s big downsizing came, and the team was also hit hard.

The YouTuber’s source was also affected by the layoffs, so it’s unknown if Halo Studios (since the rebranding came this fall) is still planning a sequel to Halo Infinite, or if they’re trying to bring back the old glory of Master Chief with a completely different concept, as the second and third Halo games were specifically treated as mainstream titles, and they were certainly killer apps for Xbox and Xbox 360.

Meanwhile, we also recently reported that Halo Infinite will get a new addition to the franchise that hasn’t been seen before, as it will be available in an external view, but it’s unclear if this will be available in the story mode or just when you choose multiplayer options. Halo has always been a first-person shooter, and this may be a very unusual change for that.

In any case, Halo Studios is working on several new projects at once, and they’re already developing with Unreal Engine 5 (they’re not alone: even CD Projekt RED dropped REDengine…).

Source: WCCFTech