Microsoft to reboot 343 Studios and adopt Unreal Engine for future Halo games

Microsoft will do restructuring of 343 Studios after the fiasco Halo Infinite. According to a report from bloomberg, the studio responsible for Xbox’s most iconic franchise, will start from scratch. This means a change in leadership, new employees and a commitment to the graphics engine. Unreal engine promote next games Halo.

While internal changes at 343 Studios have been evident in recent months, a wave of layoffs has hit the studio hard. The report mentions that, at least 95 people lost their jobs. Among them were veterans and directors who had worked on previous projects, as well as temporary employees.

While 343 Studios has the largest headcount of Xbox Game Studios, a 30% workforce loss is a significant number. Joseph Staten hired to rescue Halo Infinite and guarantee its release on the Xbox Series X|S, he left the studio and was transferred to another division of Microsoft. Staten was joined by other important names such as David Berger, CTO, Bonnie Ross, head of the franchise, or Nicolas “Spart” Bouvier, art director who was responsible for defining Halo’s style after Bungie left.

change of leadership will allow the resumption of studies with the goal of continuing to develop more Halo games. Rumored for months343 Studios will use Unreal Engine., leaving the Slipspace engine behind. Changes in technology would allow new horizons to be explored and facilitate the recruitment of trained personnel. One of the restrictions halo endless it’s its graphics engine, a proprietary technology based on thirty-year-old code that makes new game modes difficult to implement.

What will happen to Halo Infinite and next games Halo?

Although reboot of 343 Studios has not been confirmed by Microsoft, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, announced the studio’s succession as the main game developer Master Chief a few weeks ago. The manager put an end to the rumors about the change of ownership and confirmed that 343 is “house Halo“Although this does not deny that there may be cooperation. The departure of key personnel and the introduction of new technologies will require support for other internal teams during the transition period.

With the changes at 343 Studios and a look at the future of the franchise, the first question is: what will happen to Halo Infinite? Master Chief’s latest adventure was well received thanks to the campaign mode though it was in multiplayer where everything fell apart. The lack of content and game modes affected the 10-year plan originally put together by Microsoft.

According to internal sources, prior to dismissal 343 employees are working on prototypes in Unreal Engine and new ideas for future games.. The thought that we would see an expansion for the campaign was only in the minds of the fans, since no one worked on downloadable content to expand the story mode. Similarly, other engineers had trouble implementing multiplayer features due to the graphics engine.

Current technology is the main enemy of 343 Studios

Modalities such as “Evacuation” or “Assault” are almost finished, but cannot be released for technical reasons. This situation is similar to what we saw in local co-op mode, which was eventually canceled Thanks Slipspace. For now, Microsoft will be betting on user-generated content through Forge, the level and game mode editor.

In addition, 343 Studios is working with Certain Affinity on a new Unreal Engine project that is rumored to be a battle royale. Halo. The sources who leaked this information mentioned that the game could go in a different direction if necessary. The explosion of the genre has subsided, and several companies have had to cancel projects due to falling audiences.

Phil Spencer, Xbox boss, has been saying for two years that Halo This is vital for a brand. Words are still not backed by facts, and we’ll have to wait a few years – maybe another generation of consoles – to see if 343 can take the franchise to the level it once was with Bungie.