Halo Studios...?

[ChunkOfWax]

oh boy...

Today, Microsoft announced Halo Studios, a re-brand of what was 343 Industries. In their blog post, they state that this is supposed to be a brand new, 3rd chapter in Halo development, with Bungie and 343 being chapters 1 and 2 respectively.

Alongside this announcement, they also announced a complete and total shift to Unreal Engine 5 for seemingly all future halo projects, completely canning the Slipspace Engine that was used for Halo Infinite. In this announcement, they also shared a few renders made in UE 5 that look pretty nice.

This is all interesting stuff. However! Imo, this most interesting part about all this is that this news coincides with a lot of interesting leaks regarding a Combat Evolved remaster... which is either good or bad news depending on who you are lol

I figured there might be a few halo nerds here that might be interested in this news. Halo has been such a controversial talking point over the past, like, decade, so I’m really interested to see what comes of this. I’ve been let down plenty of times by 343, but I’m not a total hater. They got it right a small handful of times. Gonna share a few thoughts below…

The Good?

• Even though this is still just 343, a rebrand might not be the worse idea ever. Can’t really make any conclusions about it though until we start to see what comes out of this “new studio”.
• I think a shift to Unreal 5 is a good idea. It’s crazy that they wasted as much money as they did on Slipspace, but also… Slipspace just kinda sucks lol. From my understanding, a decent amount of Infinite’s troubled development stems from Slipspace. So developing future games on an engine that most of the industry is familiar with is probably a better call. And if this means that the next halo game has better load times and runs better on my computer than Infinite does, I’m all for it. Infinite runs like piss, so I’m happy if this could alleviate similar issues in future games

The Bad?

• A CE remaster is very interesting. I don’t think remaster would be ever be able to capture the same vibe the original Halo games had. In the case of CE, so much of that games identity is based on its old ass OG xbox graphics. So, trying to do a next gen overall just won’t really be a true replacement. However! If they were to a remaster… I wouldn’t be totally opposed. If I wanted to play the original CE, I can just do that. And as it stands, the current CE remaster (CE: Anniversary) really, really sucks. And if these Unreal renders are anything to go off of, I don’t think the CE remaster would look that awful. I’ll hold my tongue on how they remaster certain environments… but I think Chief looks really good. All in all, if this remaster sucks, oh well. If it’s good, cool. Maintaining a healthy dose of cautious optimism (EDIT: upon a second glance, idk if Chief actually looks that great lol. Probably not indicative of any final product though so it’s whatever idc)

Interested to hear any thoughts anyone might have :)

 

[Super Crab Deluxe Turbo X]

the real problem with Halo is reportedly that Microsoft will rely on a lot of contractors instead of actually hiring people and also have a rule that contractors can only work for like 16 months or so. you cannot actually make a modern AAA game like that, but it costs less, so

using Unreal instead of their own engine would certainly make onboarding easier, but it's still hard to have hope unless they confirm "Halo Studios" is going to be an actual studio and not a revolving door of people

 

[ChunkOfWax]

the real problem with Halo is reportedly that Microsoft will rely on a lot of contractors instead of actually hiring people and also have a rule that contractors can only work for like 16 months or so. you cannot actually make a modern AAA game like that, but it costs less, so

using Unreal instead of their own engine would certainly make onboarding easier, but it's still hard to have hope unless they confirm "Halo Studios" is going to be an actual studio and not a revolving door of people

I’ve heard talk about that too. I guess that even if there’s a “new” studio developing Halo, there’s still the wider, systemic issue with how Microsoft/Xbox has been running their business lately. I’ve heard about how a similar contractor situation is plaguing other 1st party Xbox games, like Forza or whatever, but I can’t really speak to that

 

[DEEP.UNKNWN]

Unfortunately for them they can't make me 13 again so I don't know if I will ever be excited about new Halo. I enjoy MCC and play it for a while once a year. What made the originals so special is impossible to replicate with the how modern studies approach making games IMO

 

[Andrew]

Calling the studio itself "Halo Studios" is perhaps everything wrong with Microsoft's mentality towards videogames condensed and laid bare. There is no art here, there is IP & product- you're here for Halo! You're only here for Halo! Studios will often gravitate towards a franchise and have for a long time - see Sonic Team - but historic and established Brand Studios - also see Sonic Team for this - are allowed to experiment with other titles in a way that modern product silos are not. Who's to say if Phantasy Star Online or Nights into Dreams made the Sonic Adventure games any better, but merely being allowed to prototype and develop anything not named Halo would inherently make you a better studio and in turn allow you to make a better Halo game.

Just my two cents. Similar to what Crab said, the revolving door of contractors is also awful. It's not done anything beneficial for Microsoft's image (both to consumers or developers) and I'm shocked they keep using that policy and expecting different results.

 

[crantheman]

Similar to what Crab said, the revolving door of contractors is also awful. It's not done anything beneficial for Microsoft's image (both to consumers or developers) and I'm shocked they keep using that policy and expecting different results.

The biggest problem with Halo imo is Microsoft itself. They're wayyy too obsessed with making shareholder margins for the next calendar year that they're willing to lay off thousands of people from Activision/Blizzard. I don't know much about Halo and 343 (now Halo Studios), but I totally believe the contractor situation. It sounds like something Microsoft would do to keep costs down and revenues up.

 

[Andrew]

Here's an article about 343i specifically, but it's been documented that these short term contract crews also work on Forza as well: https://www.polygon.com/23562119/halo-infinite-343-industries-layoffs-joe-staten

 

[Mukky]

I am sick of remakes!!!!!

I will take my MGS3 remake, and that's it. we're done! No more, please stop. Halo CE doesn't need a remake, it holds up VERY well

 

[mercedes]

i am a hater of 343, they cant escape their past failures with a rebrand
halo CE doesnt need a remake and would be a total waste of resources
they should make new halo games with a fresh cast to differentiate themselves properly
also... the name is silly too imo, the name for a game studio shouldnt be tied to just 1 series