At the end of the 2024 Halo World Championships, 343 Industries made some big announcements about the future of Halo. The studio is rebranding as Halo Studios, and future Halo titles will now be developed in Unreal Engine 5, rather than Slipstream Engine. This move has also reignited speculation about Halo games potentially appearing on PlayStation 5. And according to industry experts, this will make porting Halo a lot easier.
“From a multi-platform game development perspective, moving to Unreal Engine 5 would certainly be easier for the developer than porting across the existing Slipspace engine,” said Digital Foundry’s Rich Leadbetter via Eurogamer. “It stands to reason that an engine designed for deployment across multiple platforms would be easier to work with than existing technology built for Xbox and PC.”
Earlier this year, The Verge reported that Microsoft was considering bringing more games to PlayStation 5, including Halo. While Halo is one of the primary Xbox franchises, cross-platform releases have already proven to be beneficial for Microsoft. Sea of Thieves found a new audience on PS5, and Bethesda has announced plans to bring Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to the console following a few months of exclusivity on Xbox Series X|S.