Microsoft’s 343 Industries has been rebranded as Halo Studios and powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine.
Halo Studios made the announcement today in a video. This is a big nod to Unreal Engine 5, which is praised for its realistic graphics and physics.
And it’s the latest sign that Microsoft is still investing heavily in Halo, which has sold more than 81 million copies and generated an estimated $10 billion in revenue to date. .
The last Halo title was Halo: Infinite, released in December 2021. Although the film received critical acclaim and sold well, there were complaints about the quality and the length of time it took 343 Industries to produce the title. Bonnie Ross, head of the Halo franchise at 343 Industries, will leave Microsoft in September 2022.
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Microsoft has so far remained silent about what will happen next. Moving from our proprietary Halo game engine to Unreal Engine 5 was a big decision to buy external technology to provide the foundational tools for creating games. And this means that Epic’s industry-wide tool Unreal has the potential to yield higher quality, more realistic images than what Microsoft itself could economically build with its own game engine called Slipspace. You are acknowledging that it is expensive.
in blog poststudio head Pierre Hinze said this is a new turning of the page for Halo.
“When you really break down Halo, there were two very different chapters: Chapter 1 – Bungie,” Hintze said. “Chapter 2 – 343 Industry” I think there is now an audience that wants more. So we’re not only going to improve the efficiency of development, but we’re also going to change the recipe of how Halo games are made. Therefore, a new chapter begins today. ”
In the video, Microsoft also introduced some of the new Halo studio leaders, including senior community manager John Junyszek. Chief of Staff Melissa Boone; Elizabeth Van Wyck Chief Operating Officer; Casey Wu, executive producer. Andrea Gausman, Lead Technical Artist. Chris Matthews, Studio Art Director. and studio design director Max Schlagor.
It started as Project Foundry, started by studio art director Chris Matthews. He wanted to see how far his team could take things with Unreal Engine 5. At first it was a research project and a way to prepare for the next step. About creating a new Halo game. He said the first Halo was a best-in-class graphics showcase, and that’s what they want Halo to do again.
They worked on creating biomes, including drawing inspiration from the Pacific Northwest and its greenery and waterfalls for the terrain for the next Halo. The second biome focused on the textured cold lands of the Winter Wastes. And then there was something called The Blight Lands, which was taken over by The Flood.
Lenny Simon, Director of UE Licensing at Epic Games, also spoke in a video as part of praising Microsoft’s move to next-gen.
“What made Halo so successful in the first place? What is the tradition of Halo, what is the spirit we want to convey, what is the technology of making Halo games, and what does the studio need to do to make it happen?” How do I set this up?” Van Wyck said in the video.
In a blog post she said: “The way we’ve made Halo games in the past isn’t necessarily going to work for how we’ll make games in the future. So some of the conversations we’ve had are about how the team wants to create games rather than tools and engines. It was about how to be able to focus on things.”
Up until now, she said, the team had been split into two parts, working on the technology while also working on the game.
“We knew we had to make changes to lead us into the future,” Wu said in the video.
“The changes we’ve made to move to UE allow us to move Halo forward in ways people haven’t seen before, while staying true to the essence of Halo,” Van Wyck said.
“Fortunately, we have a studio that’s very passionate about what Halo looks and feels like, and I think there’s a lot of desire to really collaborate moving forward together,” Szlagor said. .
There are multiple titles in the works, and Halo Studios is currently recruiting new talent for them. You’re clearly creating multiple worlds and “changing the recipe.” Hiring new employees is also a good argument for standardizing on Unreal, as more new employees will be introduced to the platform.
