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Rumor: Halo is Switching to Unreal Ungine

Rumor: Halo is Switching to Unreal Ungine - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 October 2022 / 2,743 Views

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries is reportedly looking to switch from its own Slipspace Engine to Unreal Engine, according to Jeremy Penter on Twitter who spoke with multiple sources.

"I can only confirm that many sources are saying this and very clear that it's already been decided and Halo is for sure switching to Unreal," said Penter over the weekend.

This should be treated as a rumor, however, if it turns out to be true it isn't known what this decision means for Halo Infinite. The game was originally going to be supported by 343 for a decade.

Halo Infinite has had its own issues has it was originally delayed by a year before launching in December 2021. However, there have been many features missing from the game that will finally launch next month, including Campaign Network Co-op and Forge. Split-Screen Co-op was recently cancelled.


A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.


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18 Comments
shikamaru317 (on 03 October 2022)

Considering the reports that struggles with the Slipspace engine were behind alot of Halo Infinite's development issues, this may be for the best. A bit strange to use Unreal and pay Epic Games 5% of their revenue though, instead of moving to id Tech 7 or the very likely in development id tech 8 that id is likely making for their next game, since Microsoft owns id Tech now. id Tech is a proven 1st person shooter engine, and id already made the maximum map size 2 times larger on id tech 7 than on id tech 6, which is ideal for more open Halo campaign levels. We also know that id tech can be customized to meet a studio's needs, we already saw that done with Arkane's Void engine and Tango's STEM engine, both of which were customized id tech variants, so if 343 needed an even larger max map size than id tech 7 allows, they should be able to to customize it for even larger maps.

  • +3
G2ThaUNiT shikamaru317 (on 03 October 2022)

It's strange how underutilized id Tech is nowadays. It's been almost 2 and a half years since Doom Eternal and still it's just been Eternal that has used id Tech 7. Especially considering how much of an amazing engine it still is!

  • 0
SecondWar G2ThaUNiT (on 04 October 2022)

Doesn't that depend on whether id are willingly to license it. Epic has a whole support team for Unreal Engine. Quite possible id (and their parents Bethesda/Microsoft) don't want to do that, although there's less of an issue with giving it to an Microsoft-owned studio.

  • -1
GaoGaiGarV shikamaru317 (on 03 October 2022)

If they want to grow without the bottleneck of programmers first having to be trained lengthy on id tech instead of just hiring new talent from the market who already have knowledge of the widely available Unreal engine then there is no alternative.
Halo Infinite did show them what could happen if the set of available programmers on an proprietary engine is too small and/or volatile. They won't repeat the same mistake by switching one proprietary engine for another one.

  • +2
VAMatt (on 03 October 2022)

Hard for me to see how it makes sense to switch Halo Infinite to a new engine in the middle of its life. I think it would be a lot more reasonable to just and development on the current Halo infinite after the spring update. Then they can launch a new Halo, it can be based on all of the same stuff, on the new engine a year or two later, or whenever they can have it ready.

If they don't want people to feel like they got ripped off because they thought they were buying into a long-term platform for Halo content, they can give the new one away free to owners of the current game.

Also, it's a good opportunity to dump 8th gen support.

  • +2
trunkswd VAMatt (on 03 October 2022)

I would hope if the rumor is true the switch to Unreal Engine would be for Halo 7 and not Halo Infinite. Plus it would take years to develop anyway, so we are likely talking a minimum of 3 years away.

  • 0
scrapking trunkswd (on 06 October 2022)

It's not impossible that it's both. They may port Infinite to UE5 as a way to learn the engine. And also a way to provide more robust future support for Halo Infinite. Similar to how many games were ported from old engines to the "Source" engine, back in the day.

  • 0
JackHandy (on 03 October 2022)

Man, do I really miss experiencing the original trilogy...

  • +1
ClassicGamingWizzz (on 03 October 2022)

its amazing news, now it needs a new studio.

  • +1
hellobion2 (on 25 November 2023)

Good article!

  • 0
LittleCloud (on 04 October 2022)

MS and Epic announced a partnership when UE5 was unveiled, so not exactly news.

  • 0
twintail (on 03 October 2022)

It sounds like the engine move is going to be a necessity. But I can't help but feel that it's really unfortunate. There are less and less dedicated game engines, and I don't think the move to Unreal for a lot of devs is a bad thing: I think it will be very beneficial.

  • 0
G2ThaUNiT (on 03 October 2022)

I've always been very iffy about Halo switching to Unreal. For one is for the physics based gameplay Halo is known for. It's never, as far as I'm aware of, been replicated in the likes of Unreal. There's a reason why the Slipspace engine is a highly modified version of Bungie's original Blam engine. But also due to the extreme customizability of Forge. Something Unreal engine has never done before.

Idk how a change like this would be able to successfully be pulled off.

  • 0
TallSilhouette G2ThaUNiT (on 03 October 2022)

Unreal has all the tools for bleeding edge real time physics (or will with 5.1) like Chaos and Niagara, they're just kinda hidden beneath the surface and take some finagling. Hopefully future updates highlight those tools more.

  • 0
G2ThaUNiT TallSilhouette (on 03 October 2022)

Those tools are super sick, but these tools apply more towards Battlefield style physics rather than Halo. Halo physics are complete wild ass that make no sense and players constantly try to exploit xD which is why I've never seen them replicated before in Unreal. At least not to my knowledge.

  • -1
smroadkill15 (on 05 October 2022)

If they want to move on from the Slipspace engine, go for it, but I think they should for their next game.

  • -1
Mr Puggsly (on 04 October 2022)

No, switch back to the Halo 3 engine.

  • -1
KLAMarine (on 03 October 2022)

If it'll ease development, why not?

  • -1