343 Industries has some bad news this week for Halo fans, and no it’s not another Halo Infinite delay. The developer has said that they are putting the series on hiatus, as they have no plans to take the games past the 2017 sequel, Halo Wars 2. That’s bad news, but entirely predictable. The various real-time strategy fans hoping for a sequel will be disappointed.
The announcement came in the latest Halo Waypoint update (as spotted by Eurogamer) that saw the studio acknowledge that it’s been a long time since we saw the Halo Wars franchise. With four years having gone by without a peep, things looked bleak, and it’s predictable that they would respond this way. The statement from 343 was clear, saying “As of today, there is no plan for the development team to re-engage with Halo Wars 2 and we aren’t working on a new game in the series at this time.” The team didn’t entirely leave fans without hope though, saying “We’re specifically never going to say never because, well, who knows what the future may bring.”
The studio’s reasons are that they just don’t have the time. The franchise had been on the back burner for a while, even when it was still fresh. There was never going to be a multi-game push for the RTS franchise, at least the way that the mainline games got. The post was clear, as the studio had to be honest and admitted that “It really boils down to the realities of finite time, resources, and focus for the studio. The 343 Publishing team has no shortage of ideas and inspiration to pursue for MCC and plenty of ongoing work to support the Halo franchise.”
343 Industries as a whole are committed to the mainline games for now. And with the next game, Halo: Infinite, on the way, there’s little to be done about that lack of attention. Halo: Infinite is due later this year on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC. So until we get more of that game, we aren’t likely to see a new RTS spin-off. And even then, let’s be honest, there’s little likelihood of the games going back in that direction.