Halo Infinite switching to Unreal Engine amid 343 shake-up claims insider-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

Halo Infinite – maybe they should’ve done this from the start? (pic: Microsoft)

It looks like more senior staff are leaving Halo developer 343 Industries, as the developer changes to using Unreal Engine instead of its own tech.

Instead of getting better over time Halo Infinite has only seemed to get worst, its reputation slowly declining over time, from its mostly positive launch.

Many fans have been quick to the point the finger at developer 343 Industries, who have made similar mistakes with Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo 5.

There have been recent signs of unrest at the developer, with the exit of studio head Bonnie Ross and now a hint at another major upheaval: switching from using the developer’s own game engine, called the Slipspace Engine, to the off-the-shelf Unreal Engine 5.

That may not sound an especially exciting change, but it makes a huge difference to how the game is constructed and, with luck, will help to smooth out the many development problems the game has experienced.

The idea is that because Unreal Engine is so commonplace elsewhere in the industry it’s much easier to support, and find experts on, but the downside is that it would be very difficult to convert Halo Infinite to using it.

Normally a developer wouldn’t bother – they’d just make a new game instead – but 343 has already said they plan to support Halo Infinite for 10 years, so it’s unclear whether they’ll carry on using Slipspace for all that time or not.

The news arose over the weekend, with respected reporter Jeremy Penter claiming that his sources had confirmed ‘Halo’ is switching to Unreal Engine. Although he didn’t specifically say Halo Infinite.

He also alluded to ‘other switches behind the scenes including people leaving and their past problems’.

Apart from Ross, there’s been a number of other high profile exits from 343 in recent months, including David Berger, creator of Slipspace Engine – which many already guessed might lead to using Unreal Engine 5 instead.

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