Xbox opens Halo Studios to give a boost to its most successful franchise

According to employees of the renamed studio, this change represents a new way in which players will experience the franchise in a way that has not happened before and will mark the beginning of the third stage of Halo (the first was with Bungie and the second with 343 Industries).

Project Foundry, a representation of what is possible

As part of the new stage, Halo Studios showed Project Foundry, an initiative they have been working on as research, development and training of the work team around Unreal Engine 5.

From the inside they affirm that this is “neither a game nor a technical demonstration”, but they do mention that it is the basis for how the new studio will carry out changes in the creation processes of its video games.

“One of the main things we’re interested in doing,” said Chris Matthews, the studio’s art director, “is growing and expanding our world so that players have more things to interact with and more things to experience.”

So far there is no announcement of a video game or release date for it, but among the images that have been released from Project Foundry you can see much more detailed environments, improvements in shadows and lighting, as well as a new version of the Master Chief suit.

Halo, the most important Xbox video game

Halo’s history is turbulent. It began in 2001 with Bungie as the studio responsible for its development until 2010, when it was taken over by 343 Industries. Even today Bungie belongs to PlayStation Studios.

The franchise quickly became the emblem of Xbox in front of its consumers, but it has not been exempt from controversial decisions. In January 2023, Microsoft fired around 100 people from the studio, which started a wave of layoffs in the gaming world that continues to this day.

According to data that Microsoft’s business director, Lillian Lehmann, shared on her LinkedIn profile, Halo had accumulated more than $10 billion in revenue until 2019 alone, which demonstrates the success of the video game.

It is worth mentioning that the latest game in the franchise, Halo Infinite, has exceeded 30 million unique players and the franchise has sold more than 81 million copies of all its games in its 23-year history.