It seems that Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries may ditch its own Slipspace Engine in favor of the Unreal Engine.
This came from journalist Jeremy Penter (thanks HVG), which the wrote yesterday (October 2), “I can only confirm that many sources are talking about this, and it is very clear that this has already been decided and Halo is definitely moving to Unreal. I feel like it's time for some other switches behind the scenes, including people leaving and their past issues. Unreal is a great choice.”
It's not uncommon for developers to change an engine if they find it doesn't perform well, such as when Kingdom Hearts 3 moved from Square Enix's then-broken Luminous Engine to Unreal Engine 4. The inconvenience is that this engine was supposed to be the basis for a future Halo series, which, if the reports are true, obviously will not be done.
Halo Infinite has obviously fallen on hard times: it was delayed by more than a year, and it came out last year with modes and features like the co-op campaign and Forge missing. The roadmap put Forge and the co-op campaign in November of this year, but even that comes with the caveat that the split-screen co-op has been canceled, which has been typical of the series.
Infinite had the biggest launch in the history of the series, but inconsistent updates have left players frustrated and numerous employee departures would also not benefit the team's workflow.
Rumor has it that Halo support developer Certain Affinity is preparing a battle royale project, but who knows if this will be enough to restore players' faith in the Halo multiplayer scene. These rumors don't mention if this supposed project will be developed in Slipspace or not, but with 343's supposed move to Unreal, it's likely that this engine will be left for future Halo projects.
