A former 343 Industries developer has seemingly confirmed that the next Halo game, which has yet to be officially announced, has been in development since at least April 2022.
As spotted by Idle Sloth on Twitter, former 343 art director Justin Dinges updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect that he had "worked on Halo's next unannounced release" from April 2022 to March 2023, when he left the studio to join Lost Boys Interactive.
Meanwhile, current 343 senior character systems designer Ian Slutz has working with Unreal Engine 5, according to his own LinkedIn profile. And although the profile doesn't mention the next Halo game specifically, Unreal Engine 5 was released in April 2022, years after the release of Halo Infinite, suggesting at the very least that 343 is working on something that has yet to be announced.
(FYI) According to Justin Dinges's (Art Director) LinkedIn page, 343 has been working on the next unannounced Halo release since April 2022Also, Ian Slutz (Senior Character System Designer) has been building player systems and assets in UE5Sources:https://t.co/IczfsyieBj… pic.twitter.com/Wxwu1ui6Q6January 9, 2024
343 has been hard at work on Halo Infinite, recently adding the classic PvE Firefight mode, and as such hasn't unveiled the next title in the series. However, back in January 2023 following reports of mass layoffs and claims that it might stop actively developing the series, the studio formally committed to developing Halo "now and in the future, including epic stories, multiplayer, and more of what makes Halo great."
We probably won't know for some time whether the project being referenced in Dinges' LinkedIn profile is a proper sequel, some sort of spinoff deal, or something else entirely. We also still don't know what the heck support studio Certain Affinity has been working on for the last few years, other than the fact that it has something to do with Halo. Whether or not the two are connected remains unclear as well.
In the meantime, why not peruse our list of the best FPS games ever?