Halo 7 just got a major update as a former Bungie veteran, Dan Gniady, has been hired to be the lead game designer to do work on a "Halo experience."
The fact that Halo developer 343 Industries has hired Gniady comes as the latter previously worked as a lead designer on Hyenas at Creative Assembly. He had also spent a decade as a designer at Bungie. He worked on both Destiny titles as well as various expansions for the games.
Development of Halo 7
(Photo : 343 Industries / Screenshot taken from official website)
In a statement on his LinkedIn page last month, Gniady said, "After speaking with a ton of cool teams about rad projects I'm getting a shot to work with the Chief and friends." He also said that he loves Halo and was very excited to be a part of adding to the franchise's legacy.
The latest entry in the Halo franchise has been in development at 343 Industries and it appears that it will be using Unreal Engine based on another job posting. There have been no other details or confirmation about the state of the game, according to Insider Gaming.
Gniady's work on Destiny had him being hands-on with the game's first expansion, The Curse of Osiris. On top of doing work as a producer, his nearly decade-long Bungie career included efforts on Warmind, Forsaken, the Black Armoy weapon foundry, Season of the Drifter, Shadowkeep, and Beyond Light.
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Seasoned Gaming's editor-in-chief Ains also said that Microsoft currently has a team at 343 Industries that is working on the next Halo campaign. He added that the efforts were part of restructuring to build the next generation of Halo on Unreal Engine, said WCCFTech.
While the Halo franchise was conceived by Bungie, development duties for the game series were handed over to 343 Industries after Halo 3. The latest mainline entry is a follow-up to Halo: Infinite, which was released in 2021.
A New Lead Game Designer
The development of Halo 7, or whatever it will be called, comes as there is still support for Halo: Infinite, and the most recent patch was the Tenrai IV Operation update. Now, some fans expect that the game has been losing popularity with each update that comes out.
In March earlier this year, 343 Industries opened some new positions, leading to speculations of efforts with the new game in the franchise. The rumors were also further supported by the fact that Gniady was hired to be the lead game designer.
On top of being made in Unreal Engine, it was said that pre-production for Halo 7 was completed between 2022 and 2023. It seems that developers are hard at work on the creative direction for future Halo projects, including narrative, characters, and more.
With not much information to go with, Microsoft has options on what directions it wants to take Halo 7 in moving forward. The easiest route would be to continue the story that was built in Halo: Infinite.
However, it is also entirely possible for the studio to create an entirely new lore in the game but fans will have to wait for official word from 343 Industries or Microsoft to be sure, according to Game Rant.
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