Following yesterday’s announcement that 343 Industries, now rebranded as Halo Studios is not only switching to Unreal Engine 5 for future game development, but is also in full on ‘growth’ mode too. They’re ramping up hiring across various disciplines for what is confirmed to be multiple Halo projects. What are those projects? Are Halo Studios working on a full Remake of Halo: Combat Evolved?
Halo hits the reset button
The conversation about Microsoft and Halo Studios switching to Unreal Engine 5 has been floating around for months, especially since a report via Jason Schrier and Bloomberg back in January of 2023.
This report came after long-standing head of the studio, Bonnie Ross, left the team in September of 2022. What followed was a general clearing of house, where many long-standing veterans of the developer also moved on to pastures new.
In steps Pierre Hintz as the new studio head, who many credit for “saving” Halo: The Master Chief Collection, following a disastrous launch. With a renewed mission, the question Halo fans have been asking is – what’s next?
Why a full remake of Halo: Combat Evolved
In a blog post shared on Xbox Wire, yesterday, Hintze and the team shared a little information about why they made the switch to Unreal, and one of the key reasons was how games are developed.
It’s no secret that while the teams work on Slipspace (the engine that powers Halo Infinite) was good, it turns out that developing a game engine and a game at the same time isn’t very efficient. “On Halo Infinite, we were developing a tech stack that was supposed to set us up for the future, and games at the same time.” says Hintze.
The team want to be able to focus on creating games, not technology. When we look at the images and footage shared from the video published yesterday, there are several things that stand out to me above all others – the first is the Master Chief himself.
First, we have his MJOLNIR armour, as seen below. It’s a massive throwback to the original Mark V armour, from the iconic (and my personal favourite) helmet, to the way the chest and pauldrons look.
As you can see, it’s very different to the suit worn in both Halo 4, and the redesign seen in both Halo 5 and Halo Infinite. It’s far less complex, and returns the Chief to his original tank-like visual.
There’s also the pain-staking build out of Halo: Combat Evolved’s classic Pacific North-West visuals, complete with Forerunner tower, tumbling waterfall and more. It’s all very reminiscent of Halo Combat: Evolved’s titular level, Halo.
Lastly, there’s the description from the team at Halo Studios on exactly what this work in Unreal Engine 5, internally called ‘Project Foundry’ actually is:
“Where this type of work’s been done historically, across the industry, it can contain a lot of smoke and mirrors,” explains Art Director Chris Matthews. “It sometimes leads players down paths where they believe it’s going to be one thing, and then something else happens. The ethos of (Project) Foundry is vigorously the opposite of that.
Everything we’ve made is built to the kind of standards that we need to build for the future of our games. We were very intentional about not stepping into tech demo territory. We built things that we truly believe in, and the content that we’ve built – or at least a good percentage of it – could travel anywhere inside our games in the future if we so desire it.”
Pierre Hintze adds to this – “It’s fair to say that our intent is that the majority of what we showcased in Foundry is expected to be in projects which we are building, or future projects.”
There’s one final piece to this puzzle. And that comes via Tom Warren, Senior Editor over at the Verge. Back in June of 2024, ahead of the Xbox Games Showcase, Tom reported on some information he’d gathered on Halo as part of his ongoing “notepad” subscription series. In it, he wrote:
“One game that is being considered for release on PS5 is Halo, though. Sources tell me Microsoft is working on some form of a Halo: Combat Evolved remaster that is also being considered for rival consoles. I don’t expect Microsoft to announce this during the showcase, as it’s early days for this remaster.“
“Could you sacrifice me to complete your mission?”
While nothing was ultimately revealed during the showcase, this new video from the now rebranded Halo Studios certainly lends further credibility to the idea of a full, ground-up remake of Halo: Combat Evolved.
Personally, I never quite jived with the remaster which is now a part of the Master Chief Collection, originally releasing back in 2011. A full on remake gives the team at Halo Studios the chance to take some creative risks, expand the gameplay and take the visuals to the next level.
If the rumour of future Halo games being considered under Microsoft’s ‘Project Latitude’, meaning they can release on rival console platforms like PlayStation is also true, this could be Microsoft and Halo Studios’ new way of introducing an entire generation of new players to Halo.
It’s an iconic series that spans back over the entire history of Xbox, and sacrificing exclusivity in order to bring more players to the franchise might be a choice that Microsoft make. More players playing and loving Halo? That doesn’t sound so bad to me.
