Halo announcement could address slow sequel releases

Back when I was a kid, it felt like games got sequels a lot faster than they do today. As it turns out, there’s a good reason why things felt like that — they did. However, fast-forward to the modern day, where the gap between Halo 5 and the latest release, Halo Infinite, was six years and a whole console generation apart, although untimely delays played a part in that. To put that in perspective, Halo 1, 2, and 3 were released in the span of six years back in the early to mid-2000s, and each subsequent entry represented a graphical leap as well as a gameplay one.

Nowadays, it feels like that’s something that just can’t happen today, barring a few exceptions. 2024 is the first year since 2019 that there won’t be a new Resident Evil release, so it’s not like the problem is impossible to solve as Capcom seems to have done it. Halo Studios may have done it as well, judging by their new announcement. On October 6, a blog post on Xbox Wire revealed 343 Industries is now known as Halo Studios, and they are ditching their in-house Slipspace Engine in favor of Unreal Engine 5. It sounds like a simple change, but Halo Studios explains how this could lead to faster releases. As of right now, this stands as my biggest issue in gaming, and this change could fix everything.

Halo Studios may have cracked the code

Have the problems been solved?

Halo Studios

A big issue plaguing studios today is high turnover. 343, before the rebrand, laid off 95 members in 2023. They were far from the only studio plagued by layoffs, but it became a real issue when any new employee had to come in and learn an in-house engine instead of the commonly used Unreal Engine. Halo Studios cites this change as a way they can get games out to the public faster. Halo Studios COO Elizabeth van Wyck explained a large portion of the studio was employed to keep the engine up to date, but they no longer have that tether:

“The way we made Halo games before doesn’t necessarily work as well for the way we want to make games for the future. So part of the conversation we had was about how we help the team focus on making games, versus making the tools and the engines.”

— Elizabeth van Wyck

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If a new developer joins the team, there’s a good chance they have experience working with Unreal Engine, and that means they can get started quicker instead of needing the required training on an in-house engine. Perhaps the biggest factor here, as laid out in the blog posts, is the ability to set up “multiple teams to create different games simultaneously.” This allows the developers to consistently work on games, and that could lead to a pipeline similar to what we see with Resident Evil.

“It’s not just about how long it takes to bring a game to market, but how long it takes for us to update the game, bring new content to players, adapt to what we’re seeing our players want. Part of that is [in how we build the game], but another part is the recruiting. How long does it take to ramp somebody up to be able to actually create assets that show up in your game?”

— Elizabeth van Wyck

All of this sounds like good news to me, but it only solves the issue for one game studio. The reality is, many games still take years to come out after their predecessor. A common complaint during this generation has been the lack of games, and it’s really hard for me to argue against that. Even when it’s a new release, like Star Wars Outlaws, it still runs the risk of feeling like a game you’ve played before.

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It’s simple: Games come out too slow

An unfortunate trend that’s all too common

PlayStation

One of my favorite games from the PS4 generation was Spider-Man. To me, it was easily the most innovative Spider-Man yet, and while I appreciated the Miles Morales spin-off, it never truly felt like a fully-fledged sequel. I still played it, but it wasn’t as fresh as the original was, and it left me waiting for the true sequel. It was a wait that lasted a little over five years, and when it finally did arrive, I was a bit disappointed.

Spider-Man 2, a well-made game, didn’t feel like a proper leap from its predecessor, even with the inclusion of a playable Venom. It felt a lot like swinging around the same New York I already knew. In a vacuum, it’s a great game, but as a sequel, I was left wanting more. Going back to the original Halo trilogy, each game made leaps over the last with the introduction of things like dual-wielding, Forge mode, playable Elites, new weapons, and the list goes on and on.

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A similar situation played out for me with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I loved Breath of the Wild back in 2017, and I was dying to see where the series went from there. By the time Tears of the Kingdom was released in 2023, my hype had largely disappeared. Don’t get me wrong, TOTK is another good game, but it felt like more of the same. As games get bigger and better looking, it seems like the wait between entries gets longer and the innovation suffers too.

Grand Theft Auto is another infamous example. Between 2001 and 2004, we got GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas. This run is looked back upon fondly, and it’s a glimpse at a time that’s long gone. GTA 5 was released back in 2013, and we still have a long wait for the sequel. GTA 6 was officially revealed in December 2023, but it’s expected to be released late in 2025, making it a 12-year wait between 5 and 6, provided there aren’t any delays.

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Studios need to pivot, adapt, and stay relevant

Changes are happening, whether they like it or not

Sony

It’s tough to pin down a solution to the problem, but it looks like the steps Halo Studios are taking is the right path to be on. Of course, not every studio has the backing of Microsoft to make a shift like this, but if it results in more Halo games coming out more consistently, it’ll be hard to argue with the results. Halo Studios announced multiple projects were in development, and that means we might finally see spin-offs like Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST again.

We’re late into this generation, so it might take another console refresh for the changes to truly pay off. I want to be excited about games again, and a big part of that is just having them released quicker than they are. Studios being aware of the issue is a good first step, but seeing if it actually makes a difference is another thing entirely.

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