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Xbox announces that future Halo games will be developed on Unreal Engine 5

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Why do people hate halo so much lol - just looking for reasons to hate
There is lots to hate. Infinite got a downgrade, the campaign was meh at best, and the game looked really really bad even for a 2021 cross gen title.

But now? This is what we want. Halo to run with great graphics and become the force it used to be in AAA gaming. It looks stunning and switching to UE5 is a great fucking idea. by the time it comes out, we should have the next gen xbox console so it should run at 60 fps as well. not that ue5 games dont run at 60 fps already. in fact, every single ue5 game except for hellblade 2 runs at 60 fps on consoles.

hating for the sake of hating is getting old.
 
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sachos

Member
Im kinda hype for this. I say split the dev time into 2. One single player focused team dedicated to classic single player campaigns, maybe even remaking the first games and another team dedicated to the multiplayer experience.
I understand that consolidation for UE5 has negative impacts but i hope these big studios using it like CD Projekt, The Coalition and this new one can contribute to make it better engine.
 
343i artists just can't seem to land on a 3D model for Master Chief that both looks cool, updates and modernizes his look while keeping to the same general feel of his Bungie era design.

This motherfucking abomination looks like an AI generated filter of the H:CE model who is constipated and proportioned like a cheap knock-off Chinese action figure. It looks fucking awful.

I don't know why it's just so hard to just not go back and copy & paste Master Chief's Halo 3 design, without modification.
 
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ShaiKhulud1989

Gold Member
343i artists just can't seem to land on a 3D model for Master Chief that both looks cool, updates and modernizes his look while keeping to the same general feel of his Bungie era design.

This motherfucking abomination looks like an AI generated filter of the H:CE model who is constipated and proportioned like a cheap knock-off Chinese action figure. It looks fucking awful.

I don't know why it's just so hard to just not go back and copy & paste Master Chief's Halo 3 design, without modification.
MCs model also lacks PBR. Like at all. The whole vid and renders had that FAN RECREATED HIS FAVORITE HALO CE ON UNREAL 5 kinda vibe.
 

LiquidRex

Member
With Phil saying they're supporting Playstation in the future (PS5 Pro PS6 etc) it makes sense the next Halo is built with UE5 no? , rumor has it devs have already been informed on what Sony has planned with regards PS6 in terms of capabilities.
 
One benefit Halo Studios will potentially have over other studios making games on Unreal Engine 5 is that The Coalition will likely on hand to help make the most of the tech. The Coalition also have a lot of custom tech they've built for Unreal Engine, including data streaming systems.
 

Pimpbaa

Member
So they just renamed 343 Industries?

Yeah, so that makes me confused why people are saying 343 is dead. The same idiots who made 4, 5, and infinite (and master chief colllection) are still making Halo. Baffles me why MS has given them so many chances to do Halo right yet kill off Arkane Austin because they were forced to make a shitty game in a genre completely out of their lane (I mean if they were to allowed to make another Prey game, it could have been awesome) or Tango Gameworks for whatever stupid reason. Only positive thing I can say about this is that it will be a lot better looking than Infinite (which isn’t hard considering that looked like an Xbox One game).
 

LiquidRex

Member
Yeah, so that makes me confused why people are saying 343 is dead. The same idiots who made 4, 5, and infinite (and master chief colllection) are still making Halo. Baffles me why MS has given them so many chances to do Halo right yet kill off Arkane Austin because they were forced to make a shitty game in a genre completely out of their lane (I mean if they were to allowed to make another Prey game, it could have been awesome) or Tango Gameworks for whatever stupid reason. Only positive thing I can say about this is that it will be a lot better looking than Infinite (which isn’t hard considering that looked like an Xbox One game).
Thread 'Rumor: 343 Industries Will Only Supervise Development of Future Halo Games' https://www.neogaf.com/threads/rumo...ise-development-of-future-halo-games.1672864/

So was there any truth to this.
 

Three

Member
>Spend years developing a new engine
>Say it has a 10-year plan and will be used for the franchise moving forward
>First game using it looks bad and flops
>Change to UE5, a notoriously heavy engine

Yep. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. What kind of publisher uses UE for their flagship games?
A publisher that needs multiplatform support quickly. CDPR also switched btw.
 
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dem

Member
Slipspace has nothing to do with BLAM, it was created from scratch for Infinite and was worked on for 10 years. It's an another huge L for MS Gaming tech department because they have what in-house tech? Forza Tech?

BLAM-based engine is alive and well in Destiny 2 though and the game is clearly suffering because of it.

Hate to tell you.. Slipspace is blam
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
Looks amazing. This is a great choice to give devs freedom to just make a game instead of fucking around with engine building which was clearly not their forte.

UE5 is the future. CD Project switching to it pretty much confirmed that. It's obvious from AC Shadows, Ghost of tsushima and Dragon Age that inhouse engines are a generation behind UE5.

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Well, for one, this studio DOES NOT get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to teasers. This looks fantastic, but it's also labeled as "concept art?"

Just a reminder: Halo Infinite premiered with this:



And ended up looking like this:



The 2018 trailer looked about as good as this one in terms of impressive levels of detail. So why should we expect this studio to actually deliver, especially when no other UE5 game looks anywhere close to this? I don't know why this studio keeps doing this. Setting expectations extremely high and then failing to deliver time after time. I will be shocked if the game looks ANYTHING like that on Xbox Series X hardware, or even Next Gen Xbox hardware for that matter.
 
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Kangx

Member
They need to narrow this game down. Don't go too wide like Halo infinite. Take advantage of unreal engine and let players closer to the characters and environment. A bit like Gears of war but first person. Make it gritty and in your face. Maybe occasionally a big fire fight battle, but make this game more linear.
 

ShaiKhulud1989

Gold Member
Hate to tell you.. Slipspace is blam
You kinda messed things up. Of course some parts of BLEEM are still there (and I'm sure a lot of specific code form Slipspace will be ported to UE5), nobody is writing the basic stuff from scratch. Parts of Quake code are still present in both CoD and Source 2 engines. But I'm sure as hell they are not freaking idTech 1.
 
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ZehDon

Member
Rumours are we're getting a Halo: CE remake before their new title.

This would be an identical plan 343i employed when they took over. Remake Halo: CE to cut your teeth, and then take a swing with your big original. 343i delivered Halo: Anniversary, which was pretty awful, so here's hoping Halo Studios actually delivers.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Don’t get the point of this announcement, maybe to gain interest for devs who want to work on the games?

But without them announcing any new halo game this info isn’t doing much. People have lost confidence in Halo.

They're problem running into issues attracting employees and contractors to 343i With good reason. This is a studio rebrand and its about recruiting. For some reason gamesr always think information is specifically for their benefit.

So they bought the ID engine for nothing? Unbelievable.

How many games have used ID7? One game in the last 4 years...

It's so interesting how people live in the past. iD Tech is not a rival engine to Unreal Engine. They do not have the built out library or support that Epic has for Unreal. They bought ABK for CoD and King. They didn't buy it for ID7.

Considering UE5 is a VRAM hog I can honestly wish all the MS studios luck with Series S not holding back X.

Or perhaps they will target PS5 Pro.

It's going to be interesting. I think based on rumors, it's clear that this is for a remake of Halo CE, but what is unclear is whether this planned to be a launch title for a new system released in 2026 or if this is just going to end up a multiplatform title on XBS, PC, and PS5 as the hiring would suggest. If this game plays like slop on the Series S (and it would) and plays best on PS5 Pro (and it would), Microsoft has a real PR problem.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
It's going to be interesting. I think based on rumors, it's clear that this is for a remake of Halo CE, but what is unclear is whether this planned to be a launch title for a new system released in 2026 or if this is just going to end up a multiplatform title on XBS, PC, and PS5 as the hiring would suggest. If this game plays like slop on the Series S (and it would) and plays best on PS5 Pro (and it would), Microsoft has a real PR problem.

It doesn't look like this game is coming out anytime soon. Even if it is a remake. They are just basically dinking around creating UE5 tech demos. And we all know UE5 tech demos can look amazing, while UE5 ACTUAL games look far less than those tech demos and are riddled with performance issues.

So, I would be surprised if their next game releases anytime in the next 4 years. Like you said, it's a recruiting video.
 

Edder1

Member
You kinda messed things up. Of course some parts of BLEEM are still there (and I'm sure a lot of specific code form Slipspace will be ported to UE5), nobody is writing the basic stuff from scratch. Parts of Quake code are still present in both CoD and Source 2 engines. But I'm sure as hell they are not freaking idTech 1.
Yeah, they definitely gonna port physics and other game logic from Slipspace. It's not a bad thing, those things were solid in previous games, it was the other aspects of Slipspace that fell apart. 343i or whatever theyvare called now are not capable of making a decent Halo game, so really no amount of rebranding is gonna save Halo I'm afraid. The smartest thing for Microsoft to have done would have been to let 343i rebrand and make other games while giving Halo to another studio within Microsoft, like Raven or Infinity Ward at Activision. A simple studio rebrand (studio that failed the franchise for over a decade) and new engine isn't gonna dave Halo, but giving it to new studio qith fresh perspective may.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Isn't UE5 weak at making open world games?

I don't think there has been any notable big open world game based on UE5 out yet. STALKER 2 is releasing soon but GSC isn't exactly the best optimizers.

Even CDPR have switched to UE5 for the next Witcher game, so it's probably in a better state than a few years ago.
 

Wulfer

Member
It doesn't look like this game is coming out anytime soon. Even if it is a remake. They are just basically dinking around creating UE5 tech demos. And we all know UE5 tech demos can look amazing, while UE5 ACTUAL games look far less than those tech demos and are riddled with performance issues.

So, I would be surprised if their next game releases anytime in the next 4 years. Like you said, it's a recruiting video.
Doesn't matter it's the reset Halo has needed for a very long time. Focus, drive and time we can wait, plenty of games to play!
 

splattered

Member
I kind of love that Microsoft is continuing to invest in the franchise and are making big changes here for the future... and somehow people on Gaf seem actually upset and are stomping their baby feet throwing snarky comments. Don't even give AF if it goes to Playstation, just focus on making a great game and bring back that magic from the original Halo. Screenshots look great, environmental video snippets look great, animation looks ass... but it's extremely early so not worried about it. Can't wait for the future!
 
As long as they keep it carefully crafted linear experiences similar to how TLOU did it, we may be good here. And leave out the micro transactions and DEI - keep it simple, less is more. No hate or anything that’s just how halo succeeded. Add the graphical prowess and we good.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
It doesn't look like this game is coming out anytime soon. Even if it is a remake. They are just basically dinking around creating UE5 tech demos. And we all know UE5 tech demos can look amazing, while UE5 ACTUAL games look far less than those tech demos and are riddled with performance issues.

So, I would be surprised if their next game releases anytime in the next 4 years. Like you said, it's a recruiting video.

Just because this is the start of a rebrand doesn't mean it is the start of them developing the remake.

They actually don't have a ton of job posting up at the moment. I would be stunned if they don't have a game out by the end of 2026. They had already been recruiting against Unreal Engine prior to this announcement and their job reqs specifically were looking for people who had experience across consoles. Rumor is that the remake was going to be announced this year but was delayed.

We'll have a good understanding of where Microsoft's had is by the end of next year.

If they were to launch a new console in 2026 or new hardware, it's going to be a cross gen machine for a long time.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
Just because this is the start of a rebrand doesn't mean it is the start of them developing the remake.

They actually don't have a ton of job posting up at the moment. I would be stunned if they don't have a game out by the end of 2026. They had already been recruiting against Unreal Engine prior to this announcement and their job reqs specifically were looking for people who had experience across consoles. Rumor is that the remake was going to be announced this year but was delayed.

We'll have a good understanding of where Microsoft's had is by the end of next year.

If they were to launch a new console in 2026 or new hardware, it's going to be a cross gen machine for a long time.

They said this "forged" project or whatever is just them experimenting with the new engine and getting it up and running.

I think it's a longshot they have a game released in 2026. The studio has had a ton of chaos lately.
 

Dutchy

Member
Visuals won't do a damn thing if your gameplay philosophy is fundementally flawed. Halo Infinite has the worst player retention out of any Halo so far. Followed closely by every other 343 game.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
They said this "forged" project or whatever is just them experimenting with the new engine and getting it up and running.

I think it's a longshot they have a game released in 2026. The studio has had a ton of chaos lately.

I think you're maybe conflating what would likely be a remake of Halo CE and what would probably end up being Halo 7.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
I think you're maybe conflating what would likely be a remake of Halo CE and what would probably end up being Halo 7.

No, this video is setting the stage for their new projects. Getting the engine, testing it out. The next step is developing a remake and/or a game simultaneously, I don't think either of which are close to releasing.
 

Edder1

Member
Attention grabbed.

He said "Its time for Halo to be a graphical juggernaught again, like it used to be"

I like that.
When was Halo ever a graphical juggernaut? The game was always known for its art style and vast sandbox environments more than it ever was for graphics. 343i completely screwed up the art style and made Halo look uninteresting visually.
 
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VAVA Mk2

Member
Yeah, so that makes me confused why people are saying 343 is dead. The same idiots who made 4, 5, and infinite (and master chief colllection) are still making Halo. Baffles me why MS has given them so many chances to do Halo right yet kill off Arkane Austin because they were forced to make a shitty game in a genre completely out of their lane (I mean if they were to allowed to make another Prey game, it could have been awesome) or Tango Gameworks for whatever stupid reason. Only positive thing I can say about this is that it will be a lot better looking than Infinite (which isn’t hard considering that looked like an Xbox One game).
The top execs were fired, lots of people laid off or fired, tech stack replaced, and they have rehired mostly new people. They basically are starting the studio over and from the announcement at the HCA World Championships in Seattle, the tone basic feels like they want to be considered something different from 343i and their philosophy about Halo is actually hiring people that like Halo (343i was notorious for trying to make the series totally different).
 

stickkidsam

Member
I wonder if they’ll reach out to old Bungie devs. I heard 343 was adamant about not getting any help from the original Bungie team. Would be nice if that policy changed with the name.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
No, this video is setting the stage for their new projects. Getting the engine, testing it out. The next step is developing a remake and/or a game simultaneously, I don't think either of which are close to releasing.

Right, I'm just telling you, they didn't just start now.

https://www.gamesradar.com/it-looks...rking-on-the-next-halo-game-since-april-2022/

Project Foundry has almost certain been in development since 2022 and it's almost certainly a Halo CE remake. There's no way they'd spend 5+ years on this game.

https://www.ign.com/articles/micros...ed-remaster-considering-playstation-5-release

I would not be surprised if they announce this for the 25th anniversary of Halo. The only question is does it get announced for the 25th anniversary or released for it.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
Right, I'm just telling you, they didn't just start now.

https://www.gamesradar.com/it-looks...rking-on-the-next-halo-game-since-april-2022/

Project Foundry has almost certain been in development since 2022 and it's almost certainly a Halo CE remake. There's no way they'd spend 5+ years on this game.

https://www.ign.com/articles/micros...ed-remaster-considering-playstation-5-release

I would not be surprised if they announce this for the 25th anniversary of Halo. The only question is does it get announced for the 25th anniversary or released for it.

Just because they didn't start now doesn't mean it's releasing in two years time from today. Again the studio was gutted and there's been a ton of firings/layoffs/turmoil, and they are just now showing us what their new engine can do. This is their "E3 2018" Halo Infinite moment, and that game didn't come out for another 3.5 years.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Just because they didn't start now doesn't mean it's releasing in two years time from today. Again the studio was gutted and there's been a ton of firings/layoffs/turmoil, and they are just now showing us what their new engine can do. This is their "E3 2018" Halo Infinite moment, and that game didn't come out for another 3.5 years.

I guess I'll save yet another post to come back to and say again that yet again I was right...
 

salva

Member
More Halo is awesome and glad things are changing at 343i (rip), even though it's just a rename.
But we're realistically not getting a new Halo in this gen. I wonder if they can line it up this time and have a new console and Halo game day 1.

Please god just keep it to the basics. Master chief as the protagonist, 60fps, mission based campaign, 4x player coop, Slayer/CTF/KotH/Oddball/BTB MP.

Give us a Halo 3 remaster in UE5 in the mean time before the next mainline. But gl getting UE5 with 60fps with decent visuals on current gen.
 
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