Microsoft’s 343 Industries rebrands as Halo Studios

In a blog post on Sunday, Microsoft (MSFT) announced that 343 Industries, its internal game development studio focused on Xbox’s “Halo” franchise since 2007, has rebranded as Halo Studios and is adopting a new internal organization and development approach. As part of that new approach, the studio will move away from its proprietary Slipspace engine for development and will be using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. “We’re entering a new dawn for Halo,” the Xbox maker said. “Those new visuals were created using Unreal Engine 5 – and we learned that all future Halo projects will use the engine, and that multiple new games using it are in development. Alongside the engine change, the studio is seeing changes in culture, workflow, and how its teams are organized. To match that new approach, franchise stewards 343 Industries are changing their name – Halo Studios is here.” Investors in Epic Games include Tencent (TCEHY), KKR (KKR), Disney (DIS), and Sony (SONY).