According to a new Bloomberg report, 343 Industries is finally dropping the studio's in-house engine Slipspace which has been used for the past two decades, built on '90s and early 2000s code. Reportedly, it will be moving to Epic Games' Unreal Engine with a new game currently under the alias Tatanka.
Not much is known about Tatanka but it allegedly started off as a battle royale, but it may pivot to other game modes as it develops. As for the choice to finally switch to Unreal Engine, this was something management at 343 Industries have been debating for the past decade, reportedly making the leap following studio head Bonnie Ross and engine lead David Berger's departure and Pierre Hintze's takeover.
Tatanka leaked early last year on the Gaming Leaks and Rumors subreddit by yutuyo20. They found internal code from Certain Affinity hinting at a new Halo game using the alias. Interestingly, the project shares a name with WWE wrestler Tatanka who won a 40-man battle royale in 1992, lining up with Bloomberg's report of it beginning life as a battle royale.
Bloomberg reports that this new project is not only being developed by Certain Affinity but 343 Industries as well, following the tumultuous live-service support of Halo Infinite. According to Bloomberg, 343 has not been working on new story content for Infinite, but has instead been designing and developing prototypes with Unreal Engine and pitching new Halo games.
However, many of these staff were laid off as a quarter of 343 Industries were fired last week, leading transmedia boss Kiki Wolfkill to exit the studio. This concerned many who believed that Microsoft would either swap hands with Halo's development or abandon the series altogether, but Phil Spencer stated that 343 Industries remains the "heart and soul" of Halo.
What the future of Halo Infinite looks like is unclear, but 343 will reportedly continue to support "a robust live offering" while also "greenlighting our new tech stack" for future Halo outings.