Halo Infinite PReview

343 Industries Has Reportedly Lost Over 90 Employees And Is Switching Engines For The Next Halo

Slipspace is slipping away.

Bloomberg’s Jason Schrier has published a new report, detailing new developments around the recent mass layoffs at Microsoft, how they’ve affected Halo studio 343 Industries and what the future of the Halo franchise might look like.

For starters, Schrier says that Bloomberg has seen a spreadsheet of the names of employees at 343i that have been let go, which reportedly includes at least 95 names from temporary contractors all the way to studio veterans and directors. Early claims that the studio would be put on some degree of “curator” role over being the core developer for the series going forward have apparently been refuted by Head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty.

Elsewhere in the report, Schrier says that while many would have assumed that 343i was working on new single-player content for Halo Infinite, the team is actually looking toward releasing entirely new games – and these might not be developed using the same internal Slipspace engine as Infinite. Instead, future Halo titles may even pivot towards using the Unreal engine, although it’s claimed that the studio is divided over concerns that changing engines could disrupt the “feel” of Halo’s gameplay.

RELATED:  Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Hands-On Preview - Calling Dr. Jones

At least one new Halo title codenamed “Tatanka” which is potentially a battle royale, and is being made in conjunction with Certain Affinity, is already set to use the Unreal Engine.

You can read the full report here (though it its paywalled) for more detail.