Report: Microsoft is Shifting Future Halo Development to Unreal Engine

343 Industries, the Microsoft-owned studio working on Halo Infinite is reportedly in the process of moving future Halo development to Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. According to Bloomberg, the game engine change was decided last fall following the departure of 343 Industries studio head Bonnie Ross and engine lean David Berger.

“This switch will start with a new game code-named Tatanka, according to people familiar with the plans. That project, which 343 is developing alongside the Austin, Texas-based game studio Certain Affinity, started off as a battle royale but may evolve in different directions, the people said.” The engine switch has also been confirmed today by a separate report from Windows Central.

“Future games in the series will also explore using the Unreal Engine, which may make development easier, although internal skeptics are worried that the switch may have a negative impact on the way Halo games feel to play,” the Bloomberg report also says.

Halo Infinite, the latest game in the Halo franchise has been developed with the Slipspace engine, which 343 Industries created from the ground up for this new game. However, building a new game and its game engine simultaneously can be quite challenging, and Bloomberg reports that developers’ ongoing troubles with the Unreal Engine have led Extraction and Assault, two popular multiplayer game modes from previous Halo games to still be absent from Halo Infinite.

343 Industries has been affected by the 10,000 job cuts Microsoft announced earlier this month, and Bloomberg believes that at least 95 people at the studio have been laid off. With new management in place, however, the studio should now be better positioned to move forward with a game engine that many other studios within Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios division are already using.

Halo Infinite was supposed to be a fresh new start for the franchise after both Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians didn’t get the same level of critical acclaim as previous Halo games from the Bungie era. However, Microsoft still trusts 343 Industries with the future of Halo. Last week, the new studio head Pierre Hintze confirmed that 343 Industries will continue to develop “epic stories, multiplayer, and more of what makes Halo great.”