Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries is reportedly moving from its own in-house Slipspace Engine to Unreal Engine for some future games.
This news comes from a Bloomberg reports say that the move from Slipspace to Unreal will begin with a new game codenamed Tatanka, according to sources familiar with 343’s plans. Bloomberg, 343 is developing Tatanka with certain ties, who have helped develop various Halo games for over 15 years. The project is said to have started as a battle royale but is likely to evolve in different directions.
Bloomberg reports that future Halo games “will also explore using the Unreal Engine”, but some in the studio are skeptical about ditching Slipspace altogether in favor of Epic Games’ Unreal, with concerns that the switching in the encoder will negatively impact how it feels to play a Halo game. Sources familiar with the 343 and its use of Slipspace say Bloomberg that the engine, which appears to be built on decades old code, is difficult to use and has many bugs, and is sometimes a hit point for developers working on Halo games. Apparently, on many occasions throughout 343’s history, studio management considered moving to Unreal, but that didn’t really happen until Pierre Hintze took over the studio late last year. after the departure of the head of 343 Bonnie Ross and engine team leader David Berger.
Elsewhere in the report, the publication states that 343 is not working on new story content for Halo Infinite, although many fans believe story content will arrive in the game’s future. In reality, Bloomberg reports that some “developers are prototyping in the Unreal Engine and coming up with ideas for new Halo games.” However, many of those developers were laid off earlier this month, so it’s unclear if these prototypes are still in development.
This report follows news from earlier this month that Microsoft laid off 10,000 people between it is continuing its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. 343 Industries was arguably one of the studios hardest hit by these layoffs, and shortly after they happened, Halo Infinite’s creative director Joseph Staten leaves studio to rejoin Xbox Publishing. Rumors that 343 Industries would no longer develop Halo games and instead oversee the franchise began to circulate after that, but last week Hintze released a statement saying that “343 Industries will continue to develop Halo now and into the future.”
[Source: Bloomberg]
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