Halo Studios, previously known as 343 Industries, is rumoured to be far enough in working on a new Halo game that it has begun playtesting. While the fact that multiple titles in the franchise are in development was already known courtesy of a report from October, the new rumours indicating that development of the titles has gotten far enough to allow for weekly playtesting.
According to a report by YouTuber Rebs Gaming, Halo Studios has set up a large playtesting area in its studio, where the games are being playtested on a weekly basis. These playtests, along with being a way to continue development on new projects, is also a method of onboarding new hires with the rest of the team. As part of these playtests, new maps are being developed and tested for a new Halo game.
While playtesting games during development is fairly common practice for studios, the new area for playtesting is noteworthy since it indicates that Halo Studios is taking the design and testing of its next projects more seriously.
343 Industries had announced that it would be rebranding itself as Halo Studios back in October. Studio head Pierre Hintze indicated that this change was made in order to mark a new chapter for the Halo franchise, and in a move away from the series’ time with 343 Industries, Halo Studios now hopes to “change the recipe” of how it makes Halo games.
Halo Studios had confirmed that it had multiple Halo games in the pipeline in October, along with revealing that all future titles in the franchise would be developed using Unreal Engine 5. The studio had also worked on a tech demo for the last couple of years, dubbed Project Foundry. According to Hintze, the switch to Unreal Engine 5 allows the studio to focus on making multiple new experiences at the same time.
While Halo Studios hasn’t officially announced these new projects, previous rumours indicate that one of these projects might be a remaster of Halo: Combat Evolved. Supposedly separate from 2011’s Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition, the remaster is also rumoured to be coming to PlayStation.
Here’s episode 8 of my Halo Development Update series: https://t.co/cM8ddceP5b
Key points:
•As I previously reported, former 343 Industries leadership didn’t participate in playtests and ended up canceling them during Infinite’s development.
•On Linkedin Xbox revealed Halo…— Rebs Gaming (@Mr_Rebs_) January 10, 2025
I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about the last point from my report which states Halo Studios is playtesting future Halo games on a weekly basis. Since they are this far in development, I expect at least one new Halo game announcement this year. #Halo #Xbox https://t.co/tJj6UUpnzl
— Rebs Gaming (@Mr_Rebs_) January 15, 2025
