According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, the future of Halo is Unreal. In an article published Tuesday (open in new tab), Schreier said, "With the departure late last year of former studio head Bonnie Ross and engine chief David Berger, who was replaced by Pierre Hintze, [developer 343 Industries has made the final decision to shift its focus to Unreal. This change is just one example of the challenges 343 Industries faced during the development of Halo Infinite and the report outlines the impact of Microsoft's recent layoffs.

According to Schreier, at least 95 employees were laid off at 343, a number not disclosed by Microsoft. The layoffs hit "dozens of veteran employees, including top directors and contractors that the studio places a heavy emphasis on," he said. According to people familiar with the process, these temporary employees were given only a few days' warning before their contracts expired."

While 343 remains a major developer of Halo Infinite and future Halo games, the report reveals how uncertain its path to the future currently is. The report describes Halo's existing Slipspace engine as "largely based on old code from the 1990s and early 2000s" and as having been a "headache" during some of Infinite's development; Unreal's development has been a longtime Halo contributor Unreal will reportedly start with a new project, codenamed Tatanka, developed in collaboration with longtime Halo contributor Certain Affinity.

Windows Central colleagues reported on Tatanka last year, calling it a battle royale mode compatible with Halo Infinite's Forge tools. Windows Central corroborated details of 343 Industries' plans to move development to Unreal, writing, "There was a heated internal tug-of-war over the change, with one camp of developers wanting to move and another insisting Halo should stay in Slipspace. There was also a version of Tatanka built on the existing Slipspace engine, so it will be quite a while before we see the results of Halo running on the Unreal Engine.

343 Industries' leadership has repeatedly called Halo Infinite the platform for "the next decade of Halo," but what was most surprising about Bloomberg's report was that no new campaign missions or expansions are in development According to Bloomberg's sources, "developers were prototyping on the Unreal Engine and pitching ideas for a new "Halo" game rather than working on new missions for "Halo Infinite." The report adds that many of these developers were laid off during the recent cutbacks, and so far only work on the multiplayer for Infinite has continued.

As of press time, Microsoft had not responded to requests for comment.