Draft:Untitled Halo game

Untitled Halo game
Developer	Activision
Publisher	Activision
Series	Halo
Genre	First-person shooter
Modes	Single-player, multiplayer

The untitled Halo game is an upcoming first-person shooter game developed and published by Activision. It will be the seventh mainline installment of the Halo series following Halo Infinite (2021).

Following the release of the remake Halo: Campaign Evolved in July 2026, franchise owner Xbox was reportedly interested in accelerated release cadences for their major tentpole properties going forward, including Halo, amidst an organizational reset at Microsoft's gaming division. The next main Halo game was formally confirmed that September to be in development at a new team assembled within subsidiary Activision, which had assumed control and all responsibilities for the IP from previous developer Halo Studios following Xbox's structural reassessment of their first-party teams.

Development

Background

In October 2024, Xbox Game Studios developer 343 Industries, which had overseen the publisher's flagship Halo franchise since inheriting it from original creator Bungie in 2011, announced their formal rebranding as Halo Studios, intentionally done as a way to signal a fundamental change in the development team's internal philosophy, and to provide a clean break between eras of the franchise as previously done with transitioning between Bungie and 343. Halo Studios simultaneously announced that multiple future games were in various stages of production, and that they were all set to be developed on the third-party Unreal Engine 5 as opposed to the proprietary Slipspace Engine used for their latest mainline game, Halo Infinite (2021). Their first project following the rebranding was Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)'s single-player campaign released in July 2026 on multiple platforms.

Development

Following Asha Sharma's succession from Phil Spencer as CEO of Xbox in early 2026, the division underwent significant restructuring to reset their first-party pipeline, coinciding the divestiture of multiple developers with the consolidation of fewer studios around core franchises. The Information reported in June that Xbox planned to accelerate the release cadence of tentpole franchises, particularly citing Halo among other properties that would see increased investment as the publisher oriented its business around AAA titles. In an August 2026 interview with BBC, Sharma claimed that Xbox was viewing the series as a long-term revival due to it representing a "key memory structure" for the platform's audience. In the same month, reports emerged that Sledgehammer Games, a developer within the subsidiary Activision which Microsoft had acquired in 2023, was assigned and briefly prototyped a potential Halo multiplayer project as early as June of that year before it was shelved.

In September 2026, Xbox announced that as part of their ongoing structural 'reset', responsibilities for the Halo IP, including the next entry, had been transferred from Xbox Game Studios and Halo Studios to Activision, which had begun assembling a purpose-built team for the project separate from any of the studios currently producing the Call of Duty franchise. Activision president Rob Kostich said in a statement that their goal with the property was to make "the greatest Halo game ever" and to stay true to the universe, legacy and community. Halo Studios meanwhile, had the majority of its staff laid off and was by then, reduced to a shell team that would solely support their existing games such as Infinite and Campaign Evolved. The Hollywood Reporter described the game as a "full-feature, mainline installment into the franchise" according to sources affiliated with the development. Following the reset, The Verge writer Tom Warren reported that Xbox's transfer of the franchise to Activision had coincided with ending Halo Studios' involvement with the next main installment which had begun development under them, but had remained years away from launch at that point.