What Activision's Halo Takeover Means for Halo Wars

With the Xbox reset moving Halo under Activision, most creators are reacting to what it means for the Halo shooter. This is Andy's take on the question a few of you asked instead: what does it mean for Halo Wars? Short version: nothing good in the short term, a real opening in the long term, and a lot depends on what Activision does with the lore. The full video is embedded above.

What changed

• Halo is moving from Halo Studios (the studio formerly known as 343) to Activision, which becomes the overseer of the IP.
• By Andy's account, most of the Halo Studios team has been let go. A small group remains, and he's not sure what their purpose is.
• World's Edge, the Age of Empires studio and Xbox's RTS developer, is also shifting under Activision.

Why Halo under Activision is a good idea

Andy has said for years that it never made sense for Xbox to buy Bethesda and Activision and then keep Halo Studios siloed off from all of them. Back in 2022 or 2023 his pitch was to have id Software make a Halo game, or to let World's Edge make Halo Wars 3. Those collaborations never happened, and he thinks the leadership change at Xbox makes them possible for the first time.

• The track record: every Halo game 343 made had no continuity, and each one had a misstep. He lists Halo 4 being too competitive with Call of Duty, Halo 5's campaign, Infinite's live-service problems, no Steam release for Halo Wars 2, no crossplay for Halo Wars: Definitive Edition, an MCC that was a disaster for about seven years, and a Campaign Evolved remake he calls bad.
• Feel: Andy thinks an Activision Halo will simply feel better. Infinite and the Campaign Evolved remake both feel "bolted on" to him, while Halo 4 and Halo 5 played great.
• Campaigns: Activision has been working to make its campaigns more interesting again, and the yearly Call of Duty machine suggests a technology stack that could keep Halo from taking another seven years between games.
• Monetization: to the worry about skins and store prices, his counterpoint is Infinite's shop, where armor coatings cost more than the entire MCC on sale.

What it means for Halo Wars

In the short term, nothing good. Andy doesn't expect to see anything from Halo Wars while Activision gets the team spun up and works out the long-term plan for Halo. It's the biggest shake-up since Bungie left, and the lore needs a direction. The endings of Halo Infinite and Halo Wars 2 are both open, and where the story goes will shape what happens to Halo Wars.

The long-term picture is more interesting, and it comes down to who makes the game. Halo Wars 2 was built by Creative Assembly as an external studio. After the DLC wrapped, 343, which was never an RTS studio, oversaw updates and the game saw little interaction after that. Ensemble Studios, the original Age of Empires developers, made the first Halo Wars, and World's Edge now oversees Age of Empires 4 and AoE2 Definitive Edition. For the first time, Halo and a dedicated RTS studio sit under the same umbrella.

It isn't all sunshine. A World's Edge game reportedly got canceled during the move, and Andy doesn't know whether that was a future Age of Empires game or something new. The team may end up making DLC for Age of Empires indefinitely.

Halo Wars 3 and the retcon question

• If Activision picks up the existing lore, Halo Wars 3 would likely finish the ending of Halo Wars 2. Andy has always said that ending demands a sequel more than Halo Wars 1 demanded Halo Wars 2.
• If they retcon it and restart after the end of Halo 3, as some in the community want, he thinks Halo Wars 3 is probably dead.
• Andy is leaning toward the retcon. The lore has become a mess of books and factions, and he admits he can't follow it (Halsey's one arm, the Endless, the Forerunners no longer being human) despite being a big fan. If he's confused, a casual fan has no chance.
• He isn't happy about it, since it means the last 15 years of Halo are gone, "but it's always there, of course."
• A spinoff is another route: a game set on Harvest, or the very beginning of the Human-Covenant War, to build experience first.

Andy's wish list for Activision

• Stop the remakes. Halo 2 and Halo 3 don't need them, and he thinks the Halo 1 remake is awful. Let the MCC be the long-term project.
• Bring Halo 5 into the MCC as something to hold the community over, and make it playable on PC. Warzone would be fun to play again.
• Put Halo Wars 2 on Steam and Battle.net, since Activision is tied to Blizzard.
• Maybe explore a crossover with the StarCraft RTS side. Andy likes StarCraft's reported turn toward a third-person open-world shooter, but wonders if an RTS team could pair with World's Edge on Halo Wars 3.
• Look to the rest of Xbox's portfolio, such as Fallout bringing Obsidian back in, for what this kind of collaboration could look like.

Takeaways

Andy has no definitive answer, and says so. Nothing is likely for Halo Wars soon, and the bigger questions are whether Activision keeps the existing lore and whether it hands the work to a real RTS studio. He'd love to hear your take in the YouTube comments or the Discord server: should they retcon everything, is Halo Wars 3 possible, or is none of it happening? In the meantime, you can check your Halo Wars stats on TeamRespawn.net.

FAQ: Halo, Activision, and Halo Wars

Is Halo Wars 3 happening?

Nothing has been announced. Andy expects nothing for Halo Wars in the short term while Activision sorts out the Halo team and its long-term plan, and thinks a Halo Wars 3 depends on whether the existing lore continues.

Why does World's Edge matter for Halo Wars?

World's Edge is Xbox's RTS studio and oversees Age of Empires 4 and AoE2 Definitive Edition. Its move under Activision alongside Halo gives the franchise a dedicated RTS team under the same roof for the first time, and Ensemble Studios, the Age of Empires creators, made the original Halo Wars.

Will Halo's lore be retconned?

Unknown. Andy leans toward a clean restart after Halo 3 because the lore has become hard to follow, but he says a retcon would likely mean no Halo Wars 3, and he isn't happy about losing 15 years of Halo.

Could Halo Wars 2 come to Steam or Battle.net?

Andy thinks it should, since Activision is tied to Blizzard, but this is his wish and not an announcement.