Halo suffered from a tumultuous start to 2023. Concerns that were first sparked by a disappointing 2022 for Halo Infinite’s post-launch updates were further exacerbated by a huge round of layoffs at the start of the year. However, it looks like there might be light at the end of the tunnel if a new report is to be believed.
Corroborating an earlier report by Bloomberg, sources told Seasoned Gaming’s editor-in-chief Ainsthat a team is currently working on the next Halo campaign. That new Halo campaign is also part of the pivot away from Slipspace and into the Unreal Engine, making this the third such report that the developers at 343 Industries will be swapping out the franchise’s legacy engine for a future built on Unreal.
The information comes via Oct. 15’s episode of Seasoned Gaming’s Bitcast. When asked whether or not Halo would be receiving any more story content in the future, Ains said that while he had “nothing specific” to report, sources had confirmed the development of a new campaign was underway.
“What I can say, that I know anyway, is that yes they do have a team working on the next Halo campaign,” he said. “It is part of that re-structure that is building the next generation of Halo on Unreal. I don’t know, if I’m a betting man, the earliest I would expect to see another singleplayer Halo campaign is a couple of years.”
Despite a plethora of positive reviews when it released, fans were left concerned that Halo Infinite’s campaign would be left on its open ending for the foreseeable future. Those worries weren’t entirely unfounded—as part of the initial report following the layoffs and the beginning of the shuffle at 343 Industries, it was said that future story content was being put on hold in favor of a focus on Infinite’s live service.
That focus has been noticeable, with Halo Infinite’s seasons releasing closer to the cadence the developer was hoping to hit as it improved its development pipeline. Things like Firefight and the ability to utilize AI in Forge starting in season five will be able to sate player desires for PvE content temporarily, but new story content will eventually be needed. The vacuum in Halo’s current narrative output became all the more noticeable when in season four, even the multiplayer’s live service story components were scrapped.
Even though a new Halo campaign may still be years away, fans do have the rumored project codenamed Tatanka to potentially look forward to. Speculation surrounding the Halo project being developed by Certain Affinity has been circling the space for over a year now, but there has still yet to be any official news regarding the title. Halo Infinite season five, Reckoning, is also slated to release on Oct. 17.
