We recently learned that Microsoft gave development of its next Halo game to Activision, where “a new purpose-built team” - separate from the teams working on Call of Duty - has been created to oversee the franchise going forward. Now, in a report from well-known Halo and Xbox insider Rebs Gaming, a possible timeline about how the process progressed internally at Microsoft has started to take form. And the report suggests that Activision’s take on Xbox’s premiere sci-fi shooter will be a reboot of the series -one that possibly explores Master Chief’s origins.
“Activision originally proposed two separate games: a free to play multiplayer game and a campaign-only game,” Rebs Gaming said in the video. “I’m told Activision’s original idea for the campaign-only game prototype was a soft reboot that doesn’t follow Halo Infinite’s story but doesn’t retcon any previously established canon.” But Activision apparently mooted the idea of making two separate games - a multiplayer and single-player offering - instead opting to go for one package combining both elements, more in line with what we’ve seen from the Halo series to date.
Rebs also noted that teams at Sledgehammer Games have already “conceptualised and prototyped basic gameplay mechanics for both the proposed campaign and multiplayer projects”, and pitched ideas around player movement. This has apparently all taken place within the Infinity Ward Engine, proprietary tech that has been the backbone of Call of Duty games, in some way, as far back as Call of Duty 2 in 2005.
In the report, Rebs suggested that the overall team that’ll take ownership of the new title may well be built “within Sledgehammer Games”, per the report. “Please keep in mind that Activision’s Halo project is in early development so things can change,” Rebs warned.. And yes, we should take all this news speculatively: the only thing Activision has confirmed for sure is that it will be developing the next Halo title.
So they managed to get Halo’s gunplay feeling mostly “right” in Unreal as part of the remake, and now we’re going for a third engine, swapping to Infinity Ward?
That engine is very specific to CoD so I’m going to be very wary they get the look and feel right, and that it is anything I want to play…
Is it just me or does it seem like they don’t want to involved any ex-Bungie/343 people in this? Like they want it to be a clean slate or something. But whatever man, I’m eternally sad Halo hasn’t continued on the Infinite foundation, the best playing & feeling Halo with so much potential for systemic open-world design… Ugh.
Yep it feels like Activision pitched to steal Halo, Xbox went “cool” and decided to fire everyone who’s ever touched Halo, even after the well-received remake, and hand it to them…
The feel can be done, Halo has always felt good to play, no matter what anyone’s opinion was, 4 & 5 & Infinite played super well. Things differ in design, storytelling, and content. On a proprietary engine it should even be more doable to have the Halo feel than UE5, it’s just that it’s about more than the feel. The atmosphere, design & structure, etc. That could take from CoD and feel overall different from Halo in those aspects.
Yep I’m worried about the lore, environments etc and a bit concerned given CoD is very specific, but what I meant is if it feels nothing like Halo then even getting everything else right it still won’t be a Halo game.
If they get the atmosphere, look, structure all right but I feel like I’m playing a sweaty fast moving soldier rather than a hulking armoured super soldier then it’s just a CoD game set in the Halo universe, not Halo
There’s something kind of weirdly sad to me that the campaign and multiplayer are separate game pitches. Part of Halo’s identity was that it combined an awesome campaign with a huge and innovative multiplayer suite. Not that a game can’t be good if it only focuses on one thing. But the idea that that kind of scope isn’t even on the table anymore.
The more I hear about these rumors the more I hate them, a master chief origin story sounds awful and I don’t think there’s a point in that this late in the franchise, a reboot sounds even worse, this may just turn out to be worse ase scenario like some people predicted when it was handed over to Activision… I expect them to get a game out on time, that’s it, if these rumors are true.
It’s written a bit weird, but they’re supposedly going to continue with the tradition of both SP & MP in one package.
Personally, even though I’m disappointed we won’t get closure on Infinite’s story, I think switching studios is probably for the best, though I’m in two minds as to whether they should reboot the franchise completely.
Bungie’s trilogy was nigh-on perfect, so picking up after the events of Halo 3 and taking a new direction wouldn’t be the worst idea. However, that could lead to demands/expectations of what events should happen, and that it plays exactly like it does now.
A full reboot probably is for the best, but they’ve got to deliver at least a 9/10 game on their first attempt. No pressure!
I don’t think sperating campaign from multiplayer is a bad idea necessarily, and for a while I thought that would be better for Halo. What’s best for multiplayer can be different from what’s best for campaign. Imagine a campaign made by a team of experts at storytelling, set-pieces and cinematics, who have more freedom to innovate mechanics while building on the lore and stories of Halo, without being tied to the same expectations, and then a multiplayer package that persevres the more traditional Halo gameplay with co-op modes and Forge.
I have zero faith and zero confidence in Activision leading Halo. At least under 343, they averaged like an 84 or some shit. A few COD games over the last decade have been in the 70’s or under 70. Sorry, im not excited whatsoever at all. Halo should have stayed under 343 and Pierre should be the one in charge as he seems to be the only strict motherfucker there and already proved himself by fixing the shit show of MCC.
The whiplash is there and it’s just tiring. That’s three engine changes for 3 game releases. Slipspace was great as a new engine to evolve Halo’s unique feel, but they didn’t have enough experienced staff for a proprietary engine. We were promised Unreal would be a great change to help them rebuild the studio after the initial layoffs and they put a lot of work into making Unreal feel like Halo. Now we’re back to a new proprietary engine that’s very specific to a different franchise. I won’t give the reboot rumors credit at this stage, but just the look and feel of the Halo games keep changing. What is the game’s identity supposed to be at this stage?
I’ve liked the idea since it was first floated, but I wanted to see it happen with Infinite. Infinite would’ve been great to keep on as the long term free to play multiplayer (maybe even make Infinite multiplayer ONLY multiplatform and keep the campaigns exclusive). Then do a new campaign experience every 3 to 4 years. That’d make the scope much more focused and keep development tight. They could have even done this and started outsourcing Halo to multiple teams.
The campaign was really well loved for critics and players. For it to have just been abandoned and the franchise possibly getting rebooted is insane. Like I get it. They put in too much trying to get the live service multiplayer up and running, then the layoffs hit, and then the whole engine was abandoned. At that new campaign content was just not happening. I was hoping for at least a game sequel to Infinite’s story, but now even that’s sounding unlikely or a decade+ away.
Infinity was close to be the reboot halo needed. They should had expanded the open map with different biomes, more alien life, climate effects, etc the care for the details that brings in immersion. They should have brought a sense of broader war happening there. I think they should start where infinity landed campaign side and expand everything else to a next level. Maybe fulfill the first infinity idea. It was really frustrating the 343 had zero content to the open world campaign. They nailed mp tho. Halo infinity was a great game imo.
I think it would be nice to have Halo studios become the Halo engine studios where anyone wanting to work on halo starts. Halo campaign evolved just did not capture the Halo infinite feel and Gunplay which is the best it’s ever been. Black Tusk which became the coalition did not start as a Gears UE studio, but they have pretty much mastered the engine even seemingly over Epic. Slip Space worked for the little of infinite they shipped.
