Earlier this summer, Microsoft and Halo Studios hinted at an upcoming announcement set to align with the Halo World Championships later this month. While the official reveal is slated for a panel on October 24, an unofficial report suggests that a remake of the iconic original game, Halo: Combat Evolved, is currently in development by Virtuos, the studio recognized for its work on The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered.
Reports from Rebs Gaming indicate that Abstraction, a studio within the Virtuos group, is co-developing the Halo remake alongside Halo Studios, taking on the majority of the development effort. Xbox Era has since confirmed this information, further detailing that the remake will employ a hybrid engine setup: the Halo Reach Engine for core gameplay mechanics and Unreal Engine 5 for stunning visuals. Intriguingly, this iteration of Halo might also mark its debut on PlayStation consoles, though this remains unconfirmed.
Abstraction`s prior experience includes developing accessibility features for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which notably featured the 2011 remake, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. That version allowed players to seamlessly switch between the modernized and classic visuals in real-time.
Microsoft had previously disclosed that several Halo projects were underway. At last year`s Halo World Championships, the company unveiled a trailer titled “A New Dawn,” which confirmed that upcoming Halo titles, such as Project Foundry, would be built using the Unreal Engine.
The speculation surrounding this remake emerges at a propitious time, as the Halo TV series has recently garnered significant attention on Netflix, quickly climbing into the streamer`s top 10 most-watched shows. Furthermore, just last month, Halo Infinite introduced “Invasion,” a highly favored asymmetrical multiplayer mode originating from Halo: Reach.