Activision Weighs A Halo Reboot Led By Sledgehammer
A report says the new Halo team has prototyped a free-to-play mode and a campaign.
Halo now sits with Activision after the recent reshuffle at Xbox, and the publisher has reportedly proposed a reboot of the series rather than a continuation. According to the insider Rebs Gaming, the idea is a fresh start that moves away from the lore built up over 25 years of games and spin-off media, with one version of the plan exploring Master Chief origins. Nothing about the project is final, and Microsoft has not confirmed any of it.
The same report says Sledgehammer Games, one of the studios behind Call of Duty, has been prototyping the next Halo and is expected to lead development, working from a new purpose-built team rather than the existing Call of Duty studios. The prototypes included a free-to-play multiplayer game and a story campaign built in the Infinity Ward engine, which suggests the project could use Call of Duty technology instead of Unreal Engine, though the report does not treat that as settled. Microsoft has said only that a new team, separate from the studios working on Call of Duty, will oversee the franchise.
Tags
- xbox
- business
Sources
Where this story ran: 2 outlets on 2 October 2026. The summary above is written by GamersGuild; the links go to the original reports.