Halo Studios reveals Project Foundry and move to Unreal Engine 5

Formerly known as 343 Industries, the newly-revealed Halo Studios will look to bring the franchise forward in a big way.

It's hard to deny that things have been a little tough for the Halo franchise as of late. While Halo Infinite is still being supported by 343 Industries and SkyBox Labs, it appears that Xbox is ready to usher in a brand new era for the series. That means a whole new studio dedicated to all things Halo. During Sunday's Halo World Championship, viewers were treated to a first look at the new Halo Studios, the new moniker of 343, and its first title, currently codenamed Project Foundry.

Project Foundry is described as neither a tech demo, nor a full-blown title. Instead, it's described as a way to illustrate what's possible for Halo with the studio's new direction. It features many of the familiar elements of Halo. That includes Master Chief surrounded by Forerunner architecture. However, the visuals are now being created by Unreal Engine 5 with Halo Studios moving away from its old Slipspace Engine. Citing Slipspace's age, the Halo Studios team is hopeful that the switch to UE5 will help attract new talent and make the wait for updates shorter.

Let's allow Xbox Wire to explain further:

So what does Foundry represent? The team is clear that this is not a new game – but nor is it a traditional tech demo. It isn't just an exploration of what's possible with this engine – it's a true reflection of what would be required for a new Halo game using Unreal, and a training tool for how to get there. Foundry has been made with the same rigor, process, and fidelity as a shipped game would be.
"Where this type of work's been done historically, across the industry, it can contain a lot of smoke and mirrors," explains Matthews. "It sometimes leads players down paths where they believe it's going to be one thing, and then something else happens. The ethos of Foundry is vigorously the opposite of that.
"Everything we've made is built to the kind of standards that we need to build for the future of our games. We were very intentional about not stepping into tech demo territory. We built things that we truly believe in, and the content that we've built – or at least a good percentage of it – could travel anywhere inside our games in the future if we so desire it."
Hintze goes further: "It's fair to say that our intent is that the majority of what we showcased in Foundry is expected to be in projects which we are building, or future projects."

The most interesting thing to come out of the Project Foundry reveal isn't that it's a preview of the next Halo game. It's that multiple Halo games are currently in development. With that said, Halo Studios notes that these projects are far closer to the beginning than the end. The team notes that Halo Infinite will continue to be supported for the foreseeable future with all updates coming through the Slipspace Engine. The next update will see the game receive a 3rd person mode.

It's too early to say when these new Halo games will be revealed. It does feel like a safe assumption that they'll be targeting hardware beyond the current Xbox Series X|S generation. We'll be sure to keep an eye on this story, because it looks like it'll be developing for the next few years.