Halo: Infinite has been largely shrouded in mystery since the moment it was announced, and though nuggets of information and speculation have trickled through every now and then, there’s too much that we don’t yet know about the game. One of the few things that 343 Industries have talked about quite openly already is the new engine the game is being built on.
The Slipspace Engine is something 343 have talked up quite bit in the past, and in a recently published video (which you can view below), members of the development team talk about why they felt creating the engine was important for this game, and what it enables them to do for not just Halo Infinite, but also what will follow it.
Halo franchise director Frank O’Connor says that the Slipspace Engine has been especially optimized for next-gen development, and is vital for the series’ future.
“We had to create an engine that was more powerful for next-generation development, but also more nimble, so the creatives and engineers are able to work more easily and iterate faster,” he says (transcribed by GameSpot). “This technical groundwork is vital to build a platform for the future of Halo.”
“You have to make tools that allow you to make new features that allow you to make features that weren’t thought about [before],” says Engineering director David Berger. “You’ve gotta give the content-creators room to ideate outside of that.”
Given how much 343 Industries seem to be banking on the prowess of the Splipspace Engine, it should be interesting to see what it allow the studio to do with Halo Infinite. It should be doubly interesting, in fact, because though the engine is next-gen optimized, the game will also have to take into account that it will also have to run on the base Xbox One.
Halo Infinite is due out for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC this Holiday.