Gaming
by
William D’Angelo
, posted 10 hours ago / 1,095 Views
Microsoft this month announced it will lay off 10,000 employees and Halo developer, 343 Industries, was hit the hardest out of all first-party Xbox studios. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer recently stated 343 Industries and the Halo franchise is “critically important” to Xbox.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier is reporting following the mass layoffs and an overhaul of leadership the studio “is all but starting from scratch.”
The report claims at 95 people have been laid off at 343 Industries. This includes dozens of veterans, including top directors and contractors. These employees were only given a few days notice before their contracts were ended.
The Halo franchise has been using the Slipspace engine that has a large amount of old code from the 1990s and early 2000s. With Pierre Hintze taking over as lead at 343 Industries, the studio has decided to shift away from Slipspace to Unreal Engine, according to the report.
This switch to Unreal Engine will start with a new game codenamed Tatanka, according to people familiar with plans from 343 Industries. This game is being developed alongside Certain Affinity. It started off a battle royale game, but it may evolve into something different, according to the sources.
Other future games in the Halo franchise might also explore using Unreal Engine. This in theory will make development easier. However, some people internally are worried this shift “may have a negative impact on the way Halo games feel to play.”
The sources also claims 343 Industries was not working on new content for the story. Developers were focused on making prototypes in Unreal Engine and pitching ideas for new Halo games rather than working on new content for the Halo Infinite campaign.
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.
