No one expected something like this, especially during an event like the Halo World Championship, but Xbox has just announced a series of important developments for the Halo saga that change everything for the immediate future of what has been their flagship franchise for decades. And obviously, the most eye-catching news is the move to Unreal Engine 5 as the graphic engine to bring future games starring the Master Chief to life.
It was right after the tournament ended when a trailer was unexpectedly released, showcasing some locations from the Halo world with an incredible visual aspect; at that moment, 343 Industries announced that Halo is moving to Unreal Engine 5. Not only that. The massive Microsoft team, now renamed as Halo Studios, also announced that there are “multiple new games in development using this technology”.
A new step forward for Halo
The head of Halo Games, Pierre Hintze, has defined this change as a new chapter in the history of the Halo saga. “If we analyze the Halo series, there have been two very important episodes. The first with Bungie, the second with 343 Industries. Now,” he comments, “I think we have an audience eager for more. So, we are not only going to improve development efficiency, but also change the recipe on how to make Halo games. So today, we start a new episode [in the history of Halo].”
“We are not only going to improve development efficiency, but also change the recipe on how to make Halo games”
Obviously, the director is alluding to the tumultuous development of Halo Infinite, which was extended for more years than anyone (players and themselves) expected. But… what about the studio’s proprietary technology? As you may recall, Halo Infinite was designed using Slipspace Engine, which was announced as the perfect technology to design next-gen Halo experiences. The cost of this was, in the studio’s own words, that a large part of the team was needed to create and maintain this technology alive. “We believe that players’ consumption habits have changed; the expectations for the speed at which new content is expected.”
“The way we made Halo games before doesn’t necessarily work as well for how we want to make games of the future. So, part of the conversation we had revolved around how we could help the team focus on making games as opposed to creating tools and technology” – COO of Halo Studios, Elizabeth van Wyck
Of course, nobody forgets Bungie’s legacy and how much their technology influenced the creation of this iconic saga. “Respectfully, some elements of Slipspace had almost 25 years of life,” says the studio’s art director, Chris Matthews. “Although 343 has been continuously working on this technology, there are aspects of Unreal that Epic has been creating for a while and that were not available in Slipspace. And it would have taken us a lot of time and resources to try to reproduce them.”
The future of Halo, what can we expect
With Halo Infinite, the focus was on creating a massive open-world action game, what is the future of the series with Unreal Engine? “One of the main things that interests us is to grow and expand our world so that players have more to interact and experiment with,” they explain. “Nanite and Lumen (the rendering and lighting technologies of Unreal) offer us an opportunity to do it in a way the industry had not seen before. As artists, it is incredibly exciting to be able to do this work.”
The popularity of Unreal in the industry was key to betting on it
Another key aspect that led the team to bet on this technology (as CD Projekt did in the past with the new The Witcher) is the popularity of the graphic engine, which helps any new employee joining Halo Studios already have basic knowledge of how the technology works, compared to “the time they had to spend learning how to use Slipspace when they joined 343.”
“It’s not just about the time it takes us to bring a game to the market, but the time it takes to update, to offer new content to players, to adapt to what we see our players asking for,” Van Wyck continues. “Part of this change revolves around how to create the game, but another part is in recruitment. How long will it take for someone to be able to create content to show in our games?”.
What is Halo Project Foundry
The result of these tests to see how Halo would work with Unreal technology is what the studio has dubbed as Project Foundry; a video that already shows us how future games in the series would look. “The team needed to be sure that the new games created with Unreal had the right look, feel, and sound.”
Foundry is not a new game, but it is also not a traditional technical demo
“We’ve been quiet for a long time, but I think it’s time to share where we are, what our priorities as a studio are, and where the team is. We are very proud of what has been born with Foundry,” says Van Wyck. It is important to clarify that this Foundry is not a new game, but it is also not a traditional technical demo. They assure it is a faithful reflection of what it would take to create a Halo game with Unreal, and it is also a training tool to know how to get there.
