New reports point to multiple Halo projects in development and a tense atmosphere, hampered by Microsoft management.
The future of Halo, once an important franchise synonymous with the Xbox brand, has looked awfully murky ever since the launch and subsequent underperformance of 2021’s Halo Infinite.
As such, there appears to be a concerted effort to get the series back on track, with 343 Industries being rechristened as Halo Studios last year and announcing some important changes that will help define the next era of Halo games.
Although nothing concrete is confirmed, multiple Halo projects are in the works, with a remake of the original Halo being a recurring rumour, but the behind the scenes situation is allegedly far less rosy than fans would’ve hoped.
To assuage the lack of any official news, Halo insider Rebs Gaming (who previously reported on the cancelled plans for Halo Infinite) shared new claims about Halo Studios’ future projects.
First and foremost is the aforementioned Halo: Combat Evolved remake, which some believe Xbox boss Phil Spencer teased for next year when he mentioned ‘the return of a classic that’s been with us since the beginning’ at the Xbox summer showcase.
2026 would be the perfect time for a Halo 1 re-release of some kind, since that year marks the 25th anniversary of both the Halo series and the Xbox brand as a whole.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
Rebs Gaming claims that this is precisely the case, according to his own sources. He also says that the game could launch on PlayStation 5, which seems likely when other Xbox exclusives like Gears Of War are seeing releases on Sony’s console.
Curiously, Rebs Gaming’s sources say they’ve not heard anything about the remake featuring multiplayer, suggesting it’ll only contain the original campaign mode.
This seems bizarre when multiplayer is one of Halo’s most popular features, especially as the main campaign is only around 10 hours long.
It’s not uncommon for remasters and remakes to leave out the multiplayer mode though, even for something where it’s a key component of the original, such as Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Other games, from Mass Effect to The Last Of Us have also omitted their multiplayer in later releases, although the upcoming Gears Of War: Reloaded will retain its.
Aside from that, Rebs Gaming says an ‘indirect sequel’ to Halo Infinite, which he dubs Halo 7, is in the works, as well as a dedicated multiplayer game called Project Ekur.
Apparently, Project Ekur is being built from the bones of the previously rumoured battle royale spin-off, Project Tatanka, though development is being handled by Certain Affinity, which has served as a support studio for the Halo series’ multiplayer since Halo 2.
While this might all sound quite exciting, especially since at least one of these projects is likely to be unveiled at the Halo World Championships this October, a separate report paints a rather bleaker picture of Halo Studios.
In the wake of the latest round of Xbox layoffs, an anonymous developer at Halo Studios spoke with Endgadget, revealing that five of their co-workers had been let go and expressing rightful indignation over the email Phil Spencer sent out, boasting that the Xbox business was highly profitable – despite thousands of job losses.
‘I’m personally super p****d that Phil’s email to us bragged about how this was the most profitable year ever for Xbox in the same breath as pulling the lever. I wasn’t sure what part of that I was supposed to be proud about,’ said the developer.
They also insisted that Microsoft is ‘trying their damndest to replace as many jobs as they can with AI agents,’ which is perfectly believable with how much Microsoft as a whole is investing in AI technology.
However, these layoffs weren’t a tipping point. Things have apparently been tense within Halo Studios for a long while, with one unidentified project said to have recently been in a state of crisis.
‘I don’t think anybody is really happy about the quality of the product right now,’ the developer added. ‘There’s been a lot of tension and pep talks trying to rally folks to ship.’
All this makes sense when you remember how tumultuous things were at Halo Studios in 2023. At the beginning of the year, the Halo Infinite campaign team was gutted as part of previous layoffs, with former employees blaming upper management for ‘incompetent leadership.’
Both franchise director Frank O’Connor and head of creative Joseph Staten also opted to leave Microsoft, continuing a worrying trend of high profile Halo exits.
There was even chatter of Halo Studios no longer being allowed to make new games and being reduced to overseeing third party studios. While that hasn’t happened, the studio was reportedly downsized in 2024, with the new plan being to outsource development to contracted studios.
This is something Endgadget’s report has corroborated. Although there’s no mention of Halo Studios only working in a supervisory role, there has been a shift since 2023 towards contracting other studios to help speed up production on Halo projects.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.