Renowned leaker RebsGaming claims that Halo Studios, the developer of Halo, is increasingly relying on outsourcing teams for future Halo projects. The recently released Halo: Campaign Evolved, as well as the canceled multiplayer project codenamed "Project Ekur," both heavily involved external studios in their development.
Reportedly, this strategy dates back to previous statements by Halo Studios head Pierre Hintze. Developers stated that Hintze intended for the studio to outsource as much development work as possible. Notably, there have also been recent allegations regarding Hintze's poor management and workplace harassment.
Nearly all aspects of Halo: Campaign Evolved were outsourced
RebsGaming stated that the credits for Halo: Campaign Evolved show that nearly every area of development involved external studios, with a total of 15 studios participating.
The list includes A Rival, FX Chamber, Devoted, Digic, Keywords Studios, Sparxsoft, Snowed In Studios (under Keywords), Skybox Labs, Sprung Studios, Virtuos, Sparx (under Virtuos), Ninja Theory, Turn 10 Studios, and Rare.
It is reported that another independent studio named Abstraction also participated in development but did not receive direct credit. Abstraction's contract with Halo Studios was apparently terminated mid-last year due to development issues, after which the studio left Virtuos and became an independent studio again.
RebsGaming claims that employees from Abstraction who previously worked on the project later appeared in the game's "Special Thanks" list.
More notably, some external studios were not just handling fragmented tasks but were responsible for significant development content from start to finish.
For example, Virtuos was responsible for complete art production, including the game world, characters, vehicles, and weapons. Abstraction is believed to have been responsible for the design and development of campaign missions, from initial concept design and gray-box stages to final polishing, as well as scripting events and gameplay balancing.
The canceled Project Ekur was also heavily reliant on outsourcing
According to RebsGaming, while developing Halo: Campaign Evolved, Halo Studios was also outsourcing another project codenamed "Project Ekur." Previous reports indicated that Ekur was originally a new Halo multiplayer game, but it was ultimately canceled.
A source told RebsGaming that Ekur's reliance on outsourced development was even higher than previous Halo projects.
Will Halo be handed over to Activision for development in the future?
This report also revisited previous rumors about Activision potentially participating in future Halo development.
This claim first appeared last month. At that time, journalist Jez Corden stated that he heard Microsoft might let Activision handle the development of future Halo games.
Now, RebsGaming states that a source, who previously provided accurate information about Halo: Campaign Evolved, revealed that Microsoft is indeed considering a collaboration plan with Activision, which includes having Sledgehammer Games develop a Halo game. Sledgehammer Games was responsible for developing Call of Duty: WWII and Call of Duty: Vanguard.
The same source also claimed that Activision began testing a prototype for a Halo project this June. At the time, the project was in a very early gray-box stage, with only basic mechanics like player movement completed. Reportedly, this prototype was canceled in early July.
However, RebsGaming emphasized that the cancellation of the prototype does not mean Activision won't participate in Halo development in the future. Microsoft is reportedly still evaluating potential collaboration plans, and no projects have been officially approved yet.
Halo may rely heavily on outsourcing in the future
Considering Halo: Campaign Evolved, Project Ekur, and the aforementioned Activision prototype, RebsGaming believes that most of the future development work for Halo will likely be handed over to external studios.
On the positive side, outsourcing can indeed accelerate development and allow projects to produce more content in a shorter time. However, it remains questionable whether Halo Studios currently has the capability to manage such a large-scale outsourcing system.
RebsGaming used Halo: Campaign Evolved as an example.
Marcus Lehto, co-creator of the Halo series, previously criticized the Alpha Halo ring design appearing in the game's main menu on social media. He believed the ring's proportions looked incorrect, lacked the mystery expected of the Halo series, and the overall visual effect was not appealing enough.
However, RebsGaming noted that the same ring featured a completely different design in the game's final cutscene. The ring in the final cutscene had a much stronger atmospheric feel, and its overall style was clearly closer to the original Halo: Campaign Evolved.
RebsGaming believes that this obvious design discrepancy may reflect insufficient supervision by Halo Studios when managing different outsourcing teams.
Outsourcing itself is not the problem; management is key
Based on the current situation, Halo Studios will likely continue to rely on external partners to develop new Halo titles, although there is no clear project roadmap yet.
Heavy outsourcing itself is not necessarily a bad thing. If managed properly, outsourcing can help Halo shorten development cycles, expand production scale, and advance multiple projects simultaneously.
But the performance of Halo: Campaign Evolved has shown that Halo Studios needs to further improve its outsourcing development process, select truly suitable partners, and strengthen communication and supervision between different teams. Otherwise, the more studios involved in development, the more likely issues such as inconsistent styles and uneven quality will arise.
For future Halo projects, the real challenge may not be "how much to outsource," but whether Halo Studios can effectively manage these external teams.