For the latest addition in the Halo franchise, developer 343 Industries has created a brand new engine from the ground up. The studio had nothing but praise for the new engine. The Slipspace engine is allowing the studio to do things that were impossible regarding the development of Halo Infinite.
The director of the Halo franchise, Frank O’Connor stated in a video that the Slipspace engine was created for “next-generation” game development while being easier to work with. Frank said:
We had to create an engine that was more powerful for next-generation development, but also more nimble, so the creatives and engineers are able to work more easily and iterate faster.
He added:
This technical groundwork is vital to build a platform for the future of Halo
The engineering director, David Berger said that the new Slipspace engine allows the team to do things that previously seemed impossible. He said:
You have to make tools that allow you to make new features that allow you to make features that weren’t thought about [before]. You’ve gotta give the content-creators room to ideate outside of that
In 2018, we heard that the Slipspace engine might still be in development. The chances of this new engine seeing the light of day seemed low. Then last year, 343 Industries attributed the delay of Halo Infinite to them switching engines. The engine that they were switching over to was the Slipspace engine. The previous engine seemed to be running into obstacles when designing Halo 5.
Thinking ahead, 343 Industries decided to make a new engine that could last a while. You could argue that the Halo franchise is mostly responsible for the success of the original Xbox. When it comes to exclusives, the Halo series is a big reason for fans to purchase an Xbox console. Investing in the longevity of the Halo franchise seems like a wise move by Microsoft and 343 Industries.
Microsoft and 343 Industries will inaugurate the new engine with the release of Halo Infinite. According to a NeoGaf user, Halo Infinite is rumored to release at the end of 2020. It is also rumored to be a cross-gen title and will supposedly be available on the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X.
