Halo: Campaign Evolved was released in July, and there is currently no information on how the series will develop further. Industry insiders say that Halo Studios actually doesn’t have a project in development, which means that the creation of the complete next part would need to be started from scratch and the production cost would be very high.
Marcus Leto developed the original Halo with Bungie on his social network Say it About the future of the series. According to him, building a full-fledged modern Halo using a large Microsoft team would likely require $600 million to $800 million and more than 4 years of development time, something the Xbox is currently unlikely to achieve:
The main issue that I and all fans would like to see in a future full-fledged Halo is cost. If done within a Microsoft studio by a fully staffed local team, it would likely cost $600-800 million over 4 years of development. I don’t think this will happen again.
Meanwhile, Marcus Leto sees several alternatives for creating a new Halo with a smaller budget:
- The full-fledged new Halo was missing a few things at launch:
I think it would get a lot of criticism if it didn’t have everything we loved about Halo. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe a campaign and multiplayer will be enough, especially if the other features launch within a year.
[…] One possibility is to make multiplayer the core of the game first, and then develop the story into smaller “seasons,” with sequels and side stories added after launch.
- Because wages in the United States are too high, a small third-party team develops the new Halo:
I think a small independent team of experienced developers, supplemented by a good mix of young and ambitious talent, with minimal layers of management, is probably the only viable way to make Halo great again. The team must be local, working together and focused on the same goals. I have always believed that small local teams are more effective than large teams distributed around the world.
- Move away from photorealism in favor of a more accessible visual style and more content. In his words: “Fun is always more important than appearance”although he is sure “Graphics that are too outdated will still be harshly criticized”.
At the same time, Leto adheres to the principle that it’s better to spend the necessary resources on high-quality games than to try to save too much. He believes the next Halo failure could “destroy the entire series.”
Previous rumors suggested that Microsoft was considering Activision to develop the next Halo.