Halo developer 343 Industries mislaid astatine slightest 95 radical owed to Microsoft’s caller layoffs, and the workplace is seemingly switching from its proprietary Slipspace motor to Epic Games’ wide utilized Unreal Engine for aboriginal games, Bloomberg reports.

The aboriginal of Halo has been somewhat up successful the aerial since the layoffs announced connected January 18th. Halo Infinite had a beardown motorboat in precocious 2021, but implicit time, fans started to get annoyed by frustrations with multiplayer progression, repeated delays to planned features similar web run co-op and Forge (which yet launched in November), and nary denotation that caller run contented was imminent.

343 has publically affirmed its committedness to the franchise pursuing the layoffs. “Halo and Master Chief are present to stay,” workplace caput Pierre Hintze, who took implicit the relation in September, said successful a connection tweeted from the Halo relationship on January 21st. “343 Industries volition proceed to make Halo present and successful the future, including epic stories, multiplayer, and much of what makes Halo great.” And Matt Booty, who heads up Xbox Game Studios, told Bloomberg successful an interrogation that “343 volition proceed arsenic the interior developer for Halo and arsenic the location of Halo.” 

But it’s unclear erstwhile we mightiness spot the adjacent crippled successful the series, truthful it’s hard to cognize precisely what 343’s engagement volition beryllium with the franchise going forward. For example, the workplace was already moving with Austin-based Certain Affinity on a conflict royale crippled codenamed Tatanka, but that crippled “may germinate successful antithetic directions,” Bloomberg reports.

Tatanka volition besides seemingly beryllium developed connected Unreal Engine, portion aboriginal Halo games “will besides research using” Unreal, Bloomberg says. If true, the alteration marks yet different large crippled developer moving to Unreal; Witcher and Cyberpunk developer CD Projekt Red announced a “multi-year strategical partnership” with Epic Games to usage Unreal in March, and successful November, Epic said that much than fractional of each announced next-gen games are made connected Unreal Engine.

343 besides seemingly hasn’t been making caller communicative contented for Halo Infinite, which seems astonishing for a crippled once billed arsenic the “start of the adjacent 10 years for Halo” and titled, well, Infinite. Instead, developers were “making prototypes successful the Unreal Engine and pitching ideas for caller Halo games,” Bloomberg says. I was personally disappointed to work that, arsenic I truly enjoyed Infinite’s run and had been hoping for more.

We’ve asked Microsoft for remark connected Bloomberg’s report. Epic declined to comment.