Halo Infinite 2 was in development, before being canceled

In 2021, Halo Infinite arrived on Xbox Series X/S with one year late (it was to be a launch game for Microsoft’s new console). And unfortunately, this year of delay will not have helped to make it a great game, with a lot of wasted potential et missing features which clearly did not help to promote the game. Today we learned that a sequel was well in development, before finally being canceled by 343 Industries.

Halo Infinite 2: the abandoned project

Halo Infinite 2 was in development very quickly after the release of the first opus (in 2021 on Xbox Series X/S). The game was to resume the Slipspace engine which was improved for the first Infinite game. The objective was to offer a more ambitious sequel, erasing the flaws of the first game. Unfortunately, at the end of 2022, the project was finally canceled to make way for the new vision of the Halo franchise.

It was at this point that the decision to abandon the Slipspace engine was made, to favor Unreal Engine 5. According to the content creator Rebs Gaming : “The 343 creative team spent a few months learning how to use Unreal Engine 5 to prepare for the next project. This lasted until January 2023, when Microsoft laid off a significant number of 343 employees, including the entire creative team..

Words that make sense, since we learned last week that the 343 Industries studio had just been renamed “Halo Studios” and that the next opus of the saga will be well developed on Unreal Engine 5. A first image was also revealed on this occasion.

The content creator specifies that he doesn’t know if Halo Infinite 2 is completely canceled or if the latter will undergo a reboot under Unreal Engine 5. As a reminder, during Halo Studios’ announcements last week, the company confirmed that several games are currently in development under the new graphics engine. There may be a chance that the Infinite sequel will be one of these new projects.

Microsoft confirms that the Halo license prepares to enter a “new dawn”. For his part, Pierre Hintze, director of Halo Studios, talks about a new chapter to offer more to players and fans: “If you really analyze Halo, there were two very distinct chapters. Chapter 1 – Bungie. Chapter 2 – 343 Industries. Now I think we have an audience that wants more. So we’re not only going to try to improve development efficiency, but also change the recipe for creating Halo games. So we are starting a new chapter today.”