Halo reportedly moving to Unreal Engine

Remember how 343 spent most of their development time building the new Slipspace engine that was supposed to support Halo Infinite for 10 years? Well, it looks like they're ditching it for UE5.

Source

This is such an unmitigated failure. How can you sink hundreds of millions into a GAAS, delay it multiple times, have it shipped unfinished with no content, then ditch the main reason you even took this long to get the product out the door? Bonnie Ross' firing is just the beginning. 343 needs a complete shake-up.

Yeah heard about this recently. Interested in seeing how well it does on UE5.

When did MS ever say the spent hundreds of millions on Halo Infinite?

Do they even need to say it? Halo 2 18 years ago cost 120M to make. AAA games like Horizon: Zero Dawn cost over 80M. If you think Halo Infinite which took 7 years to develop didn't cost a couple of hundreds of millions, I have a bridge to sell you. It probably didn't cost the crazy 500M figure but likely in the 150-300M range.

Someone in another thread said this was debunked by Jez but I had heard the part Jez debunked had to do with Bonnie Ross being fired, that instead he's stepping away due to a family medical issues. Doesn't seem to debunk the claim of UE5 though.

Still, all rumor, but there seems to be a growing news surrounding MS supporting that their studios gain greater familiarity with UE5. Coalition put out a tech demo a while back featuring UE5, now I hear they're helping Undead Labs with State of Decay 3 using Unreal Engine 5. Ninja Theory will also be using Unreal Engine 5 for Hellblade 2, though I also hear Ninja Theory was working on a new engine for Project Mara, not sure if they still plan to but seems like they have lots of R&D devoted toward it, which might be part of their graphics engine, and/or I know they're doing psychological research attempting to make a something truly terrifying. So, Halo pivoting to UE5 doesn't seem far fetched there. It would help speed up development.

Just my speculation, I assume a lot of Halo Infinite's development issues stem from 343 working on porting MCC to PC during most of the development cycle, which they didn't wrap up until the end of 2020, and the studio trying to outsource contract work to develop the game. I had heard part of Halo Infinite's development issues regarding outsourcing with contractors was their in-house engine that made developing the game in such a fashion more challenging. Using UE5 should streamline production, and there's lots of potential there, but I feel there's a learning moment largely ignored, like 343 being bogged down putting MCC on PC while trying to meet an arbitrary Halo Infinite launch date.

@Juub1990: honestly its dissapointing if its true. If even crappy sony studios can make their own engine without issues, then 343 should not have any issues either. But this all sounds like rumors at this point, so just going to sit on this and wait. Also, now that MS has a bunch of developers like bethesda, they should have an easier time "outsourcing" work to internal teams. They just need to get more of that collaboration happening.

Probably the same sources that claim Halo Infinite cost 500 million.😂

Besides, what would be the point?

Moving into UE5 is a slight step in the right direction o 343's part, so if true, kudos for that at least. And besides, I've heard Gears 6 will also be going with UE5, so this tells me MS developers are all going with UE5 which is good, because UE4 will not be missed at all.

Next a better developer.

I agree but I doubt MS has the guts to do so.

Slipspace engine seems capable from what I saw in the campaign. However, I don't know the state of the tools for the devs. If switching to Unreal makes it easier for them, then it makes sense.

Like.. Halo Infinite? Or are they confirming more Halo is coming?

Edit: Nvm, checked the source.

This is their slipspace engine. When you look at this, do you see something released in 2021 or around 2010? Yea, i think the answer is clear, their engine is a failure. This company is taking a year to add something as simple as a coop feature. Now, by using your brain, how many years do you think it'll take them to upgrade to UE5?

Halo Infinite is the biggest AAA failure in recent memory, and all of you defending the game in the official thread should be ashamed of yourselves. I was right. You were wrong.

Maybe they can get a UE5 presentation and toolset from the Coalition guys.

Good call,

quite honestly the number of times end products have been ruined in recent memory due to poor engine choice is staggering, Frostbite being unwieldy for anything but an out and out shooter, Infinite's engine taking forever and a day to include features that have been FPS staples for decades at this stage, the RED engine being unsuitable to really make Cyberpunk (despite progress being made now). Let the engine developers make engines and support them, let game developers make games, this splitting of resources that was all the rage after the domination of unreal3 has not been a good thing. For all the crap COD developers got for using modified versions of an older engine the results are hard to argue with.

@hardwenzen said:

This is their slipspace engine. When you look at this, do you see something released in 2021 or around 2010? Yea, i think the answer is clear, their engine is a failure. This company is taking a year to add something as simple as a coop feature. Now, by using your brain, how many years do you think it'll take them to upgrade to UE5?

Halo Infinite is the biggest AAA failure in recent memory, and all of you defending the game in the official thread should be ashamed of yourselves. I was right. You were wrong.

Halo Infinite campaign is one of the best Halo campaigns ever and looks great!

@Juub1990: Only thing I can say is if Infinite was an “unmitigated failure”that launched with “No content” yet scored a 9 here, we must be in agreement that even a tad more content at launch would have seen the perfect game?

They should have the dudes who make DOOM work on the next Halo. Would be an amazing change.

Nuff said. :P

Like the Unreal Engine, can understand why everyone ops to use it even as a dumbass layman.

But I don't want every game ever to use it.

Wasn't it reported that the slipspace engine + game costed around $500 million?

No

Hallo the most talked about franchise ever

@sakaixx: It was about 100 million. They probably made 1 billion off it though. Thats cheaper than Breath of the Wild which was around 120 million to make. The new Zelda game cost maybe 150 million to make. Sony nor Microsoft has a bigger budget game than Zelda.

"insert SP gifs here" lol :P

whatever they end up doing, the people with the least interest in playing Halo will continue be the most vocal about what's happening with Halo..

@mesome713: incredible Halo made a billion when game is free to play with terrible battle pass as well as solo campaign tied to a sub service with hundreds of other. Other games must made a billion too considering its also part of the service right?

@sonny2dap: yeah, except the slipspace engine works fantastic overall.

I just love her. lol :P

@sakaixx: They only stated money made from Halo, not GamePass. I dont think Sony has a game with a budget as close to Zelda and Halo. GoW i think was 80 million. But GoW 2018 made 500 million revenue selling 19.6million copies for Sony. That means $25 for each copy. Which is pretty good. Nintendo made over 1.2 billion in revenue off Breath of the Wild. And that was two years ago. Breath of the Wild is still selling.

This is just revenue, not profit. GoW profits per each copy was probably like $15. This is why CoD is so important to Sony. They make more profits from it and dont even develop the game.

Hopefully they also move Halo over to a competent developer as well

@Zero_epyon: Like Treyarch baby. Imagine that, the CoD team making the next Halo. 🤩

That would suck because then it'll be Call of Duty with a Halo skin. No thanks.

@Zero_epyon: They are the best though. They could turn Halo into the top god like they did CoD. And the campaign will be so amazing.

any developer that consistently provides games that score between 84%~87% on metacritic is clearly competent..

there was definitely some serious mismanagement in terms of the rollout of content for their F2P multiplayer but let's not get carried away with the hyperbole..

trying to turn Halo into CoD was the primary complaint for Halo 4's multiplayer.. people just want Halo to be Halo.. 343 course-corrected that in both Halo 5 and Infinite's multiplayer to critical praise..

they simply dropped the ball on not delivering enough content fast enough to support a F2P model in Infinite.. doesn't change the fact that they messed up but also doesn't mean people want Halo to be a CoD skin..

@Juub1990: I think this was debunked.

11 months later, ANOTHER HALO THREAD.

Poor cows.

@Antwan3K: They will make Halo Halo. Treyarch can make anything.

really won't matter if/when Microsoft buys Activision.. Call of Duty will be their Call of Duty allowing Halo to be their Halo..

as such, they already have a studio developing Halo games.. and despite what the internet forums say, the games have performed well both critically and commercially since 343 took over.. not earthshattering but respectably in terms of 86% metas and charting in sales at launch.. people say they were mismanaged?.. fine, they've changed management..

i say let Treyarch make a new IP instead.. especially if they "can make anything".. but they'll likely just keep making Call of Duty games because of obvious reasons..

Lems trying so hard to damage control, but this game is such a shitshow, that its immuned to damage controlling. Be proud. Your company has created a game that everyone will remember as the poorest GaaS live service and shittiest management in the last 10 years.

Microsoft is so clueless lol. Maybe stick to releasing Windows patches instead of video games?🤣🤣🤣

On a side note, i'd be so damn happy if they upgraded Tarkov from the shitty Unity to UE5. Would be amazing.

It's not Hyperbole. If 343 performed like this with any other game, it would have been shut down by now. They've taken Halo and consistently reduced its quality with every release. I'm a big Halo fan. It's one of the few reasons I ever owned an Xbox in the first place. This is why it pains me to see Halo in this state. I appreciate the F2P multiplayer but it's one of the worse Halo MP iterations ever.

The issue wasn't that they just mismanaged the roll out, they mismanaged building the content in the first place. They canceled promised features that should have been there since launch. They're constantly missing their deadlines and changing their roadmaps. Now, if this is true, they're going to switch engines? Good luck getting more content anytime soon.

Imagine any other developer messing up this badly. Would you call Naughty Dog a competent developer if they released Factions 2 in the same state as Halo Infinite while they consistently fail to deliver content for two years and then redo the game's engine?

They're good at Call of Duty. Let's keep it that way. Halo deserves attention from a studio that gets Halo. We've seen when Call of Duty tries to be futuristic.

It makes sense in today's gaming landscape where publishers are relying more and more on support studios.

Having a proprietary engine slows the the learning and adaptation process as new contractors have to learn to work with a new engine. Using Unreal makes tools and shortcuts (and more importantly assets) portable.

I dont think it will happen with infinite, but the next engine for sure will be on Unreal or ID Tech

@Zero_epyon: it's complete hyperbole..

the fact remains the all 343 Halo titles have both reviewed well and topped sales charts.. Halo 4 was 87% meta, Halo 5 was 84% meta, Halo Infinite is 87% meta.. that's clearly a competent development studio and you don't shutdown a studio that's giving you those kinds of results.. heck, Halo Infinite is still in the top 20 most played games on Xbox despite all the doom and gloom and has been a mainstay in and around the top 10 for most of its time on the market..

again, there was mismanagement for the F2P content and also "perception is reality".. agreed there.. the game had the potential to be a top 5 contender if there was steady content.. but this talk of "shutting down 343" is purely hyperbolic.. if anything, you change management moving forward and they've done exactly that..

It's interesting how you keep using metacritic in this case despite the fact that the Halo community has been very vocal about their frustrations with 343. Halo games put out by Bungie, with the exception of ODST, were all above 91. No mainline Halo has been able to crack 90 again.

Metacritic didn't save Bonnie Ross. Metacritic isn't helping 343 deliver basic features that were present in previous Halo games.

Halo is MS' flagship IP that has free to play and it's in the top 20 and not the top 3. You think if Halo 3 was F2P it would be where infinite is at now?

The decline of Halo is real and if MS cares at all about the franchise, then it would either shake 343 up to its core or give the IP to another studio. It's only going to get worse if they do nothing.

@Antwan3K: it is hyperbole, and its pathetic to be honest. Its like these cows, they get off on talking about halo 24/7. The 87% metacritic score does not lie. Frankly, I just see it as some sort of crazy raving jealousy for not having such an epic game on their console.

I guess it makes sense, theres been literally nothing on ps5 worth playing or talking about since launch. Its been tumbleweeds. If not for the indies stepping up and bringing games like returnal, sifu, and stray to the system, there would be less than nothing.

@Zero_epyon: Bonnie Ross Leaving due to a family medical issue. Let that sink in.

@Zero_epyon: it's funny how making 9/10 games with an 87% metacritic scores is somehow cause for a studio to be shutdown.. Bungie did a great job with Halo and the facts show that 343 has done a great job as well..

in terms of the Halo community, the frustration with Halo Infinite is with the post-launch rollout.. funny how you somehow weren't tuned in for the heaps of praise Halo Infinite was getting from the Halo community during the launch window..

and lol you think Halo 3 would be in the top 3 most played games right now?.. an arena shooter dominated by Battle Royale?.. the top 3 games are Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Apex Legends.. the highest ranked area shooter on Xbox is *gasp* Halo Infinite.. the times have changed so maybe you should take off those rose-tinted glasses you have when thinking back about the golden years of Halo under Bungie..

as said before, the facts don't match your hyperbole..

Sure...Sure...