Okay Microsoft, where the heck is the next Halo?

With Gamescom 2025 having shown off a solid suite of upcoming games including Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Battlefield 6 on the horizon, and a Gears of War reboot coming, there’s plenty to look forward to as the second half of the year moves on. But with new entries in established franchises coming, it got me thinking about Halo.

It’s been nearly four years since Halo Infinite landed to some acclaim, with developer 343 Industries looking like it had nailed the feel of some of the older Halo games but also added some of its own innovation to the mix.

However, a rocky initial multiplayer experience and no shortage of delayed features took the oxygen out of a strong launch and killed its long–term potential. And aside from a few updates, there's been no solid word on what’s next for a franchise that’s been the standard bearer for Xbox since Microsoft's original console.

I don’t know if we can expect to see a new Halo game anytime soon, which not only leaves Microsoft’s gaming division without its so-called ‘killer app’ but also leaves the story of Spartan John 117, aka, Master Chief, AI Cortana, and antagonist Brute Atriox unfinished.

Ringing in a new Halo?

While I’d have argued that the Halo story arc could have ended after Halo 4, the slightly oddball narrative introduced in Halo 5: Guardians, touched upon in Halo spin-offs like Halo Wars, and finally expanded in Halo Infinite, has left fans like me in desperate need of a definitive conclusion.

Now I understand that multiplayer is often the focus, but the success of the re-imagined Doom games, including the recent Doom: The Dark Ages, the warm reception of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, would indicate there’s still an appetite for first-person shooters with a big single-player element.

And while I feel the open-area approach of Halo Infinite perhaps lacked the real high-action setpieces of other Halo games, I still think there was a solid foundation there that could be built upon and refined – that grappling hook was so very fun to use, after all.

Last October, current series developer 343, now rebranded as Halo Studios, released a video that noted multiple new games were under development by the studio, with a move to Unreal Engine 5 from the proprietary Slipspace Engine. Both of these would suggest there’s a new Halo game in the works, and at the Xbox Games Showcase back in June, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer teased the Halo franchise could return as early as 2026.

A later blog post to the Halo Waypoint website suggested that a new Unreal Engine 5 Halo project would be revealed at the Halo World Championships this October. What this game will be, and whether it will be single-player, multi-player, or both remains unclear. It is, at least, a promising sign that we could get an idea at what’s next for Halo in the coming months.

However, major layoffs by Microsoft for its gaming division has made me raise an eyebrow at how committed the company might be in really pursuing new instalment established franchises; we might just be looking at older Halo games being remade Unreal Engine 5.

Equally, I can’t see a future where Halo is fully warehoused and we don’t get a new game. And going by Spencer's tease, I can see a situation where a form of Halo 7 is revealed next year, with such an unveiling taking place at the 2026 Xbox Games Showcase as an Apple-like ‘one more thing’ to close out the show.

I'm crossing my fingers for such a reveal, as I think it's time for me and other Halo fans to ‘finish this fight’ by jumping back into the Mjölnir armour of Master Chief, and close off the Halo story with one final effort.

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