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343 Industries became Halo Studios on October 6, 2024, and the studio said future Halo projects would use Unreal Engine 5 instead of its proprietary Slipspace Engine. The change was presented as a broader reset of the studio’s tools, workflows and priorities—not just a new name. It did not move Halo Infinite to Unreal. The first major released project publicly tied to the transition is Halo: Campaign Evolved, a ground-up remake of Halo: Combat Evolved that launched on July 28, 2026.
What changed on October 6, 2024?
The announcement came ahead of the final match of the 2024 Halo World Championship. In its “A New Dawn” announcement, the studio introduced the Halo Studios name and said it was building the next generation of Halo with Unreal Engine 5. Xbox’s interview with studio leaders described the change as a combination of a new identity, a new engine direction and changes to how the studio wanted to make games.
In practical terms, three things were happening:
- The public name changed: 343 Industries became Halo Studios, the name used for the team making Halo.
- The engine direction changed: the studio said future Halo projects would be built with Unreal Engine 5 rather than Slipspace, the proprietary engine used for Halo Infinite.
- The production approach was being reset: leaders described changes to development workflows, team organization and priorities, with the stated aim of directing more effort toward making Halo games.
The announcement frames Halo Studios as the continuation and reorientation of the team formerly known as 343 Industries—not as an unrelated developer taking over the series. It establishes a public name and strategic direction, but does not by itself establish legal-entity details or the employment history of every individual on the team.
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Halo Studios’ stated reason was that developing and maintaining a proprietary engine alongside the games themselves took significant effort. The studio said it wanted teams to spend more of their time creating Halo experiences rather than building and supporting core engine technology. Unreal Engine 5 was the chosen foundation for future projects, with the studio pointing to the prospect of shared tools, workflows and a widely used development platform.
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- The legendary Halo series returns with a groundbreaking multiplayer experience and the most expansive Master Chief campaign yet.
- Campaign: When all hope is lost and humanity’s fate hangs in the balance, the Master Chief is ready to confront the most ruthless foe he’s ever faced. Step inside the armor of humanity’s greatest hero to experience an epic adventure and explore the massive scale of the Halo ring.
- Multiplayer: Halo’s celebrated multiplayer returns, reimagined and free to play! Seasonal updates evolve the experience over time with unique events, new modes and maps, and community-focused content.
- Cross-generation and cross-platform gaming: Halo Infinite provides an amazing experience across the Xbox One and newer family of consoles with stunning graphics and world-class cross-platform play. On Xbox Series X, enjoy enhanced features like up to 120 FPS and greatly reduced load times creating seamless gameplay that ushers in the next generation of gaming.*
That is the studio’s rationale, not proof that Unreal automatically makes development faster, cheaper or more successful. The announcement supplied no comparative budget, staffing figures, schedule data or performance measurements. Moving engines also brings work: Halo-specific systems and pipelines—such as its physics, animation, vehicles, weapons, AI, networking and sandbox behavior—must be built, adapted or integrated. Familiarity with Unreal may help with tools and recruitment, but the engine alone cannot reproduce Halo’s feel or guarantee stronger design, storytelling, multiplayer support or launch quality.
So the meaningful question is not whether Unreal is universally “better” than Slipspace. It is whether Halo Studios can use the change to deliver the games it wants while handling the migration costs and preserving what makes Halo play like Halo.
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Project Foundry was a development exercise, not a new game
To show what the transition could involve, Halo Studios unveiled Project Foundry, an internal research and development effort. The studio described it as a way to explore Halo’s visual direction in Unreal Engine 5, test production processes, train developers on the tools and establish standards for future work. It was built to a high level of fidelity, but the studio explicitly said it was neither a finished game nor a conventional tech demo.
The material explored three environmental concepts: a Pacific Northwest-inspired biome, a frozen region called the Coldlands, and Flood-consumed terrain called the Blightlands. These scenes illustrated art and technology exploration; they were not an announcement of three playable levels, a standalone Foundry release or a specific game’s content.
What happened to Halo Infinite?
Halo Infinite was not immediately rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5. Xbox said that the existing game would continue to be supported on Slipspace, including further Operations and Forge updates. The distinction matters: the engine announcement concerned future projects, not a conversion of the released Infinite client.
The 2024 announcement also said multiple Unreal Engine projects were in development, but did not name or detail all of them. That establishes the studio’s intent and the existence of multiple projects at that time—not a complete slate, genres, release windows or platforms for every future Halo game.
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- CPU: Custom AMD Zen 2, 8 Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.66 GHz with SMT); GPU: Custom RDNA 2, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz, 12 TFLOPS.
- Memory: 16GB GDDR6 with 320-bit bus (10GB @ 560 GB/s, 6GB @ 336 GB/s); Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen 4 custom NVMe SSD, 2.4 GB/s raw, 4.8 GB/s compressed; Optical drive: Ultra HD Blu-ray.
- Gaming Resolution: True 4K; Performance Target: Up to 120 FPS; High Dynamic Range: Up to 8K HDR.
- HDMI Features: Auto Low Latency Mode, HDMI Variable Refresh Rate, AMD FreeSync.
- What's Included: Xbox Series X – Halo Infinite Limited Edition; One Xbox Wireless Controller – Halo Infinite Limited Edition; Full-game download of Halo Infinite (coming soon); Power cord; Ultra High Speed HDMI cable. Nogtox PVT HDMI_cable
The first major public result: Halo: Campaign Evolved
Halo Studios later announced Halo: Campaign Evolved, a ground-up Unreal Engine 5 remake of Halo: Combat Evolved. It launched on July 28, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam and PlayStation 5. The release makes the engine transition more than an announcement or a set of Foundry scenes: players can now see a major shipped Halo project built on the new foundation.
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The remake rebuilds the original campaign with modern visuals and controls, and adds three story missions, expanded weapons, vehicles and enemies, gameplay modifiers, and online co-op for up to four players. Xbox and Halo’s official announcements also describe cross-play and cross-progression across supported platforms. See the Halo Studios introduction and the Xbox Wire launch announcement for the game’s details.
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- Software Main Type: Game
- Software Sub Type: First Person Shooter
- Software Name: Halo Infinite Standard Edition
- ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
- Single Player Supported: Yes
Its release demonstrates that Halo Studios has shipped a substantial Unreal Engine 5 project. It does not, by itself, isolate the engine’s effect on development speed or prove that every future Halo project will have the same scope or outcome. Nor does one remake settle what the studio’s still-unannounced projects are.
What the rebrand does—and does not—tell us
| Confirmed | Not established by the announcement |
|---|---|
| 343 Industries announced the Halo Studios name on October 6, 2024. | That 343 Industries was legally dissolved and replaced by a newly incorporated company. |
| Future Halo projects were moving to Unreal Engine 5; multiple projects were in development in 2024. | The identities, genres, release dates or platforms of every project. |
| Halo Infinite support was to continue on Slipspace. | That Infinite was converted to Unreal or abandoned as part of the rebrand. |
| Project Foundry explored technology, art direction and process. | That Foundry was a game, a playable release or a confirmed set of levels for a specific title. |
The studio’s 2024 messaging emphasized workflow, technology, culture and future priorities. It should not be treated as proof that any single event or reception issue caused the rebrand. Likewise, the stated hope of focusing more on game-making should not be turned into a promise of shorter release cycles: no verified schedule comparison accompanied the announcement.
What the change means for Halo players
For players, the engine change is a behind-the-scenes decision rather than a feature switch in Halo Infinite. Its significance is that future projects will be developed on a different technical foundation, and Campaign Evolved is the first major public release to put that strategy into practice. Unreal Engine 5 can provide tools and capabilities, but the eventual measure is the finished game: how it feels, what it offers and how well it is supported.
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