Earlier this week, 343 Industries — named after the Halo series’ 343 Guilty Spark character — made two major announcements. One, a marketing and cultural announcement, was that they were changing the studio’s name to Halo Studios to better represent the larger portfolio of Halo products that they are currently working on. While it was a new name, it represented more closely tying themselves to the series as they see its history and future. The other announcement, by contrast, was a cut from the past to look ahead: rather than use the Slipstream engine, which was created by 343 for 2021’s Halo Infinite, the studio was shifting to Unreal Engine for future Halo projects.
That announcement has different implications for the series. While 343 obviously does not want to get in a lengthy discussion in the press about this change, as it would inherently become a technical discussion that diminishes their work on Slipstream, it does beg the question of why change engines at all? Gamesbeat reached out to multiple developers to ask why they would embrace Unreal and the way it inches the industry to a more engine-agnostic future.
In-house engines are no longer in vogue
There was a time where developers of all stripes, especially larger publishers, insisted on using their own engines to power their games. Not only was it more conducive for internal development, there was always the hope that other developers might license the engine for their own games and provide a new revenue flow. Those times have changed, as outside a few major publishers, using in-house proprietary engines is no longer all that useful. Electronic Arts, Rockstar, and Capcom still prefer to use their own, but even studios at Nintendo and Square Enix have embraced outside engines like Unity and Unreal.
New employees have to hit the ground running
A major reason a lot of developers think a switch to Unreal is wise is because it gets people up to speed faster. Game development courses across North America spend weeks if not months teaching the ins-and-outs of the engine. Amateur game developers that are looking to break into the industry often start by learning Unreal. The ubiquity of the engine means the new developers can join the team without needing to be trained in whatever in-house engine is already being used.
Moreover, that efficiency works upward, as it spares veteran and senior roles from having to spend time teaching newer developers the quirks of whatever engine is being worked on.
Not everything that used to work will work well now
One major reason to change engines is that times and technology change. Slipstream is partly based on Halo’s Blam! engine which has its roots in 1997. There is only so much remodeling one can do before problems from the past become problems with the future. Issues that never got fixed or simply did not keep up with modern technology or game design could still exist in the engine, laying dormant until they need to be addressed. With a fresh switch to Unreal, developers can focus on a well-documented third-party engine from a company whose primary business it is to keep engine clients happy. It is one less worry for staff who are focusing on making a game.
Regardless of what the future for Halo looks like, and both cynics and optimists have reasons to back them up, the change to Unreal engine seems like a good one. It might also be a good change for other developers who are looking at their current engines and wondering if they’re a little long in the tooth.
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