A new report claims that a skeleton crew at Halo Studios is working on one last big content update for Halo: Campaign Evolved before the team will likely be completely cut and the studio closed. This team is not in contact with Activision, which is now in charge of Halo and building a new team for it. And that might explain why the former stewards of Halo shared a bunch of concept art that allegedly shows ideas for the studio’s sequel to Halo Infinite, which will now never happen. Instead, we got a long wait for whatever Activision is making.
On October 6, reliable Halo insider and reporter Rebs Gaming shared a new video report that claims they’ve heard from their sources that a team of around 30 people who weren’t included in the recent Xbox layoffs is still working on Halo: Campaign Evolved. This small team is reportedly being led by Halo Studios boss Pierre Hintze, and their goal is to help out with the upcoming Halo Fest event while also developing one last free content update for the recently released remake.
According to Rebs, this isn’t some tiny update comprising a few bug fixes and quality-of-life changes, but instead, the current plan is to add Firefight and a Theater Mode to Campaign Evolved. Firefight was a popular horde mode featured in past games like Halo: Reach, and its addition to Campaign Evolved would be awesome, though Rebs does caution that plans could change depending on what the small team can get done. And it sounds like once the team is done with Halo Fest in December and the update, the studio will be completely shut down.
Rebs also claims that this small team of devs still working on Halo: Campaign Evolved has no connection to Activision, which is now in charge of the Halo franchise. It also sounds like nobody from Halo Studios is leaping over to the new team being put together to develop the future of Halo under Activision. And when you consider that past reports and rumors have claimed Activision is toying with doing a soft or total reboot of the franchise, it becomes clear that the next Halo game is likely many years away and won’t have anything in common with whatever Halo Studios was planning to make next.
However, we do apparently have some idea of what we might have seen in a theoretical Halo 7/Halo Infinite sequel. In a big blog post earlier this week, the team shared a series of concept art images featuring Forerunner structures, alien worlds, and more. It is believed that these images show us what could have been if Halo Studios had gotten to make another main installment. Once again, Rebs claims that at least one of these images featuring large trees in a swampy environment on Zeta Halo (Infinite’s setting) was an idea from former Halo lead Joseph Staten for the next game and came from before he left the studio in 2023 following Infinite’s release. Other images are from after his departure, as Halo Studios was figuring out what Halo 7 would be.
One of my video reports revealed details of what Joseph Staten was conceptualizing for his Halo Infinite sequel. As I stated in the video, concept art that my source saw included a Banished Skiff among giant trees. My source just confirmed this concept art that Halo Studios… pic.twitter.com/Oq0BspduL1
— Rebs Gaming (@Mr_Rebs_) October 6, 2026
But none of those ideas seem to be anything Activision is looking to use as it begins developing its Halo game. For some fans, that might be a good thing, as not all of the Halo community loved 343/Halo Studios’ tenure over the series.
Still, for many fans, the reveal of concept art is bittersweet. Getting a glimpse of the Endless, an alien race seen in Infinite that was apparently immune to the effects of the Halo rings, is extremely tantalizing. Perhaps the Endless would have played a big role in the reportedly canceled Halo Infinite DLC. And perhaps that role would have tied into the game’s legendary ending and a future Halo 7. Now, none of that is happening; a lot of talented devs are out of work, and we are likely many, many years away from the next Halo game.
