As it gets ready for its Halo World Championship event in October, Halo Studios has started teasing that it will show off more of what it has been working on since the studio was rebranded from 343 Industries last year. In a new post on its blog, the studio wrote about speculation about its projects, and has revealed that it will be “continuing the conversation” with regards to its multiple projects.
“Last year at HaloWC, we premiered ‘A New Dawn’ where we talked about the switch to Unreal Engine, gave you a behind the scenes look at Project Foundry, and debuted our evolution to Halo Studios as we enter a new chapter for Halo,” wrote the studio, referring to its big rebrand last year. “For us, ‘A New Dawn’ was just the beginning – at this year’s HaloWC, we look forward to continuing the conversation.”
“Speculation is always fun, but if you want the official scoop on what Halo Studios has been working on, you won’t want to miss this year’s Halo World Championship. We really hope you’ll join us in Seattle this October!”
Back when it had original been rebranded as Halo Studios, the developer had also confirmed a number of different things with regards to the Halo franchise. Among other things, Halo Studios had revealed that all future games in the franchise will be made using Unreal Engine 5, as well as the fact that there are multiple projects in the franchise currently under development.
Studio head Pierre Hintze spoke about this, referring to the rebrand has the studio having “recalibrated itself”. “We had a disproportionate focus on trying to create the conditions to be successful in servicing Halo Infinite,” he said. “[But switching to Unreal] allows us to put all the focus on making multiple new experiences at the highest quality possible.”
Studio COO Elizabeth van Wyck had spoken about the decision to move to Unreal Engine 5, as well as the studio’s previous way of making games. During the announcement, she said that the previous ways don’t work as well for how Halo Studios wants to continue.
“It’s not just about how long it takes to bring a game to market, but how long it takes for us to update the game, bring new content to players, adapt to what we’re seeing our players want,” she said. “Part of that is [in how we build the game], but another part is the recruiting. How long does it take to ramp somebody up to be able to actually create assets that show up in your game?”
While the studio has been quiet since then, rumours started popping up earlier this year that playtesting for a new game had begun at Halo Studios. The studio has reportedly set up a large playtesting area where its games are being playtested weekly. The playtests, along with helping continue development of games, are also being used to onboard new developers hired by the studio.
Reports from back in May have indicated that Halo Studios might be getting close to unveiling its first major title since the rebrand during its upcoming event in October.
In the meantime, Halo Studios has continued to support titles like Halo: The Master Chief Collection as well as Halo Infinite through regular updates.
