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The Return of Chief – Halo Studios Reveal & Unreal Engine 5 Support

Master Chief getting ready to fight a Covenant Elite, with him using the iconic pistol and his foe using an energy sword.

The legendary franchise that helped launch Xbox, as we know it today, has gone through a lot in recent years. Halo has had many public fumbles, ranging from the horrific launch of The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One to the lackluster reveal of Halo Infinite on Xbox Series consoles in 2020.

Despite those fumbles, the Halo series has recovered in the gaming space, with the Master Chief Collection and Infinite being in great states, as of this writing. With that being accounted for, the team at 343 Industries is getting ready for the future of Halo as ‘Halo Studios’.

Master Chief looking nice and sharp in his grand Unreal Engine 5 appearance. The details on his armor look awesome, with the depth-of-field effect behind him looking quite realistic.

A New Dawn – Halo Studios & Unreal Engine 5

Officially calling it ‘Chapter 3’ of the history of Halo’s development cycle, Halo Studios (formally 343 Industries) shifted from the Slipspace Engine to Unreal Engine 5. This engine shift has been long rumored for a few years now, but with it officially confirmed, the developers have said the following to Xbox Wire regarding this massive shift for the development pipeline.

“One of the primary things we’re interested in is growing and expanding our world so players have more to interact with and more to experience. Nanite and Lumen [Unreal’s rendering and lighting technologies] offer us an opportunity to do that in a way that the industry hasn’t seen before. As artists, it’s incredibly exciting to do that work.”

In addition to leveraging the engine’s power to make beautiful biomes to explore, Halo Studios also stated that they want to make the development pipeline smoother for the studio and be able to update the game more consistently.

Both have been issues for 343 Industries, with the troubled development surrounding Halo Infinite highlighting some of that.

Support Continues – Halo Infinite’s Future & Additional Projects

While the impressive visuals and shift to a new engine are exciting for the next generation of Halo projects, one must ask about Halo Infinite’s future. The game consistently has been getting updates and Halo Studios assures fans the game will continue receiving updates, modes, and more;

Halo Infinite will still be supported through the Slipspace Engine – you can expect more Operations, and updates to its Forge mode. In esports, Year 4 of the Halo Championship Series, using Halo Infinite, has just been announced. But in the background, the next steps for Halo will be taken.

Regarding upcoming games for the Halo series, there is a clear focus on making more than just one major mainline Halo release following Infinite’s long development cycle;

What is clear is that, yes, it’s Halo games – plural – in development right now. Where Halo Infinite saw practically the entire studio focused on a single, evolving project, Halo Studios has recalibrated:

“We had a disproportionate focus on trying to create the conditions to be successful in servicing Halo Infinite,” says Hintze. “[But switching to Unreal] allows us to put all the focus on making multiple new experiences at the highest quality possible.”

Closing Thoughts

As a casual fan of Halo Infinite, I am very excited to see Xbox effectively, giving 343 Industries another chance to cement itself as the Halo studio. While they did amazing work building up Infinite as a multiplayer game, many people desire more single-player content for the franchise and the spin-off potential is immense.

As seen with many games this generation, Unreal Engine 5 is a flexible engine for many game genres, giving Halo Studios the freedom to make any style of Halo game. A horror game focused on the Flood? A third Halo Wars title? A spin-off game focused on the Arbitor taking place during the events of Halo Infinite?

The possibilities are endless. And with Xbox Game Studios already having experts in Unreal Engine 5, as shown with graphical powerhouse releases like Hellblade 2, there is much to look forward to with Halo games pushing visual fidelity.

My only concern is performance, as many games this generation struggle on consoles utilizing Unreal Engine 5. Games like the recent Silent Hill 2 struggle to run at 60FPS and Hellblade 2 did not offer a performance mode for the Xbox Series versions. Most recently, we at Lords of Gaming revealed that the upcoming Xbox exclusive Avowed does not run at 60FPS on Xbox Series consoles, with the target console frame rate being 30FPS.

I bring this up due to how critical it is for modern first-person shooters to run at 60FPS. This could potentially imply that the next major Halo project will be a next-generation launch title for the next Xbox.

But how do you all feel about this exciting news? Are you looking forward to Halo games running on Unreal 5? Let us know in the comments below!

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1 comment

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