343i moving Halo to Unreal Engine, Now "Tatanka"

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-31/microsoft-studio-343-industries-undergoing-reorganization-of-halo-game-franchise

With the studio reboot. It seems as well. What say you fellow SW fans? Do you think Halo would work in an Unreal Engine 5 experience?

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Chief among them is a pivot to a new gaming engine, the suite of tools and technology used to make video games. The studio’s own engine, known publicly as Slipspace, has been one of the biggest points of contention over the past two decades. Based largely on old code from the 1990s and early 2000s, it’s buggy and difficult to use and has been the source of headaches for some developers on Halo Infinite, people familiar with the development said. Several multiplayer modes that are nearly finished, such as Extraction and Assault, both popular in previous Halo games, have yet to be released in part because of issues involving the engine, they said.

At several points over the past decade, management at 343 debated switching to Epic Games Inc.’s popular Unreal Engine. But it wasn’t until late last year, when previous studio head Bonnie Ross and engine lead David Berger departed and Pierre Hintze took over, that the firm finally decided to pivot to Unreal.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. 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. A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment on issues with the engine or on the company’s plans to pivot to Unreal.

Since Halo Infinite was released, fans had assumed that in addition to new multiplayer modes, 343 was working on new content for the story. But that wasn’t the case, according to the people familiar with the situation. Developers were making prototypes in the Unreal Engine and pitching ideas for new Halo games rather than working on new missions for Halo Infinite. Many of those developers were laid off this month and the company isn’t actively working on new story content, the people said. A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment.

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Microsoft once promised that Halo Infinite would be “the start of the next ten years for Halo,” but its recent moves point to a shorter-term vision. In an email to staff following the layoffs, Hintze wrote that the current plan for 343 is to support “a robust live offering” for Halo Infinite and its Forge level creator and “greenlighting our new tech stack” for future Halo games while also “bringing Halo to more players through more platforms than ever before.”

Good that they are starting from Scratch. I felt the biggest hurdle that 343i and The Coalition had to overcome was iterate on other people's work. Just let them start from scratch and let them do something fresh with the franchise.

Infinity Ward rebooted the tired COD franchise with 2019's Modern Warfare and it may have been one of the best CODs to date, slower, more methodical. Sure the DNA is still there, but injecting fresh ideas and new gameplay mechanics is just the only way forward for a lot of tired franchises.

Thank god. Apparently that engine they were using was just terrible, and due to staff losses, the people that knew how to use it left the studio.

Similar thing happened to Bioware when they used the Frostbite engine (from DICE) on Anthem.

Good, hopefully 343i focuses on getting infinite in a better state and Certain Affinity is the lead on the new game.

I can't stress how much I miss Bungie Halo games. I remember going to the midnight launch for Halo 3 and I don't even play multiplayer.

I never got that excitement from 343i even with the Vlogs they used to do.

This is absolutely a good thing

Sounds like a good way forward. It seemed that a big problem with Halo Infinite was getting contractors up to speed with the Infinity Engine. Since Unreal Engine is more widely used then it should be easier and quicker getting contractors who are already proficient with it.

Wait until someone tells the journos that UE is also based on old code dating back to 1990s like most software.

Sounds good! I also hear that the person who got the MCC back on track is leading this effort so things might work out with the right people in charge. It's going to be a while before we see anything though but the sooner they move on from Infinite the better.

Lol what a fucking disaster. So what, they need another $500MM? Lmao

Since Halo Infinite was released, fans had assumed that in addition to new multiplayer modes, 343 was working on new content for the story. But that wasn’t the case, according to the people familiar with the situation. Developers were making prototypes in the Unreal Engine and pitching ideas for new Halo games rather than working on new missions for Halo Infinite.

Lame

Leaked Halo / Tatanka a year ago, but yeah, can corroborate all of this. I wanted to get more sources on Unreal before pulling the trigger again on that. Seems there was a big internal tug of war about whether or not to go all in on Unreal. The Unreal side won.

They already know a battle royale can work in Unreal Engine even on Mobile and Switch. Makes sense to do the Halo Battle Royale on the engine.

Looking forward to the future documentary on this giant mess of a franchise

Lol, what a load of shit.

Well, they remind me of the technical incompetence seen in the development of games like FO76, BF2042, CP2077 and Callisto Protocol. Since they are supposed to be MS first-party responsible for their fragship title like Halo, shouldn't they take the initiative and demonstrate the awesomeness of gimmicks like DirectStorage that MS boasts about with their superior engine or something?

Sounds good to me. Halo's still got potential. Easier engine to work with. Smaller team. Sounds like the recipe for making a better Halo than Infinite.

Meh! The engine isn't the problem.

So they spent half a decade creating their engine, and they're throwing that POS away after one game? Nice time and resources envestment btw.

@kvallyx: Well, clearly the visual improvements made in that extra year made the live service option unsustainable. I think Halo should go back to what CoD still is - a campaign with multiplayer component.

As long as future games are fun, I really don't care. But, it certainly is egg on MS's face that they couldn't put together a studio that could build their own sustainable engine.

Egg on MS's face is the PG version, is more like

@Pedro said:

@dabear said:

@kvallyx: Well, clearly the visual improvements made in that extra year made the live service option unsustainable. I think Halo should go back to what CoD still is - a campaign with multiplayer component.

As long as future games are fun, I really don't care. But, it certainly is egg on MS's face that they couldn't put together a studio that could build their own sustainable engine.

Egg on MS's face is the PG version, is more like

Man... I was eating a brownie when I saw that...

No Halo story till 2030 it seems

Why would Halo games play different on unreal engine? Isn't it just a grapical difference, the game can still play the same???

Are they makeing a new game? What about the 10 year plan for Infinite?

The quality of Halo Ininite is good. So, Slipspace is a capable engine. However, there are issues with production and the rate at which they release content. So, there may be issues with the tools, but the shit management and a constant rotation of employees/contractors does not help matters. An engine change is not going to solve all their problems. They really need to figure their shit out.

None of their famous "duct tape development" that ends up putting out a current gen game with PS1 polygon wobble...

Still, if they want to make a Halo Battle Royale, they're going to have to explore the 3rd person perspective because nobody gives AF about emotes and cosmetics when all you can see is your character's hand.

At least it'll be better as a Battle Royale than their current PvP games where they color over all of your cosmetics with a red or blue hue so nobody can even see what you're wearing...

The current effort is a sad joke for a premiere iconic series

If it helps speed up development then this is good. But it also seems many devs have spent a good time familiarizing themselves with UE5's tools, and 343 might not be as ready as teams that have been tinkering with UE5 for a while, and they're still making big updates to the engine here and there so for now seems like the same learning curve could apply. But long term a better solution, especially if 343 hires new talent or hires contractors, they should be able to get up to speed quicker.

The big problem with the Slipspace Engine or whatever its called is the contractors had to learn it rather than work with engines they have familiarity with. I feel this still relates to the issue of why they brought in contractors to begin with, and that's how 343 was putting the entire MCC on PC for most of Infinite's development. I think MS wanted to do this to help push Game Pass on PC, but it came at the expense of Halo Infinite's development quality. Since they're no longer juggling two big projects there's not the same issues of using Slipspace, but why risk things. Moving to UE5 will be better long term.

Reboot they say??

Halo 4 :

https://www.xboxachievements.com/news/news-11056-343-industries-halo-4-is-a-reboot-not-a-reset.html

Speaking at Microsoft’s Spring Showcase in San Francisco recently, Josh Holmes, Halo 4’s Creative Director, was keen to settle Halo fan's nerves the world over and push the notion that Halo 4 was a “reboot” and not a “reset.”

“We don’t want to simply imitate what’s been done before,” said Holmes. “We need to find our own voice and give ourselves the freedom to take chances and really push things forward.

“In some ways you can think of Halo 4 as a bit of a reboot,” Holmes continued. “It’s not a reboot in the sense of well-known film franchises in Hollywood like Batman or Star Trek or Bond. The difference there is really that we’re not pressing reset on the story, we’re not resetting the state of the universe. This is a very deliberate continuation of events that have transpired in Halo 1, 2 and 3.”

Halo 5 was another departure

Halo Infinite reboot again :

https://www.pcgamer.com/343-industries-explains-how-halo-infinite-is-a-spiritual-reboot-that-will-evoke-the-legacy-of-the-original/

'Spiritual Reboot' is a term we use to describe our approach to introducing new ideas while staying true to what it felt like to play the classic games. 'Feeling' is the key word here because we want to evolve, by creating new experiences and new opportunities, but still maintain the original essence," sandbox lead Troy Mashburn explained.

So, next Halo will be a departure

Dont have an issue with this one bit.

They messed up and now they are taking steps to put it right.

Been hearing that one since Halo 4. The fifth time around, i promise to you, they will get this one sorted.😂

Series should have ended with Halo 3. Its becoming disney star wars of gaming.

I personally think 343i bringing back Chief in Halo 4 made the series stale and hampered 343i in creating new stories and mechanics. Let go of Master Chief and move on to create new Halo experiences with new cast. A fresh world that only 343i could make I personally think that is the best course.

Why not the next ID Tech engine in which MS now owns?

And scrapping an engine that took them 5 years to build that cost $500 million to create. Ouch...

This is amazing news, halo just keeps getting better. Haters getting rekkd.

Not a big fan of companies dropping their own engines for Unreal. But I can see how a project that uses a lot contractors and aspires to keep releasing content post launch, in a timely fashion, goes for a more generic engine.

Half a billion on the engine, and they're throwing it away after one game. This is the definition of failure from inside out.

Most definitely

Switching to Unreal and no new Infinite campaign. What a failure!!! 343i really sharted the bed. 10 year plan hahaha.

Lems in trouble. Rumor is Forza and Starfield are both delayed. Thought 2023 was the year of the Xbox? Glad I didn’t put all my chips on the Series X.

Halo is such an amazing IP, I mean, it's so freakin cool and popular, people just can't get enough, it's like the Elvis of VG's. lol :P

This is good. Now they can focus on the game and not trying to develop the engine (and scale it across multiple gens).

LET'S GO TATANKA

@kathaariancode: yes, fantastic post. Live service games need constant updates, and new content, which needs more employees and contractors. Using generic engine makes alot more sense in this case. Development cost might come down overall, and speed goes up.

@hardwenzen: how do you know they threw away the engine? It can still be used for other games. For live service games, a generic engine makes sense.

Honestly I'm a bit confused on why 343 wasn't able to build an engine that makes sense and is easy to build for, but other companies don't seem to have an issue with it, like bungie and destiny engine. The issues might be deeper and there needs to be changes.

On the other hand, using unreal is a good step either way. Halo keeps getting better, heck yeah!

They made the engine specially for Halo, and its so bad that they're not using it anymore after just one game. Its like this engine was made by clueless interns, and MS was dumb enough to burn $500M on.

Let me guess, this made up Tatanka shit will be the way to cope for Infinite's failure?

@blaznwiipspman1: Costs will definitely go down, you have countless developers around the world already familiarised with Unreal. Even if their own engine was incredible it would be difficult to complete with that.

That's not to say that MS should not invest in their own engine, in the long term that would save them money and possibly create a competitive engine they could profit from. But that takes time and money too. So again, doesn't look like Halo is the right product to experiment with that and I'm sure for higher management it was an easy decision.

The engine is older than dirt. It's been used since Halo CE debuted for every Halo game.

How dumb is MS for spending half a decade and 500M on it?