Halo 7 quietly teased as Microsoft looks to the future

The Halo franchise is both one of Microsoft’s biggest first-party properties (if not the biggest) and one of the most iconic franchises of all-time led by its equally iconic protagonist, John-117 aka the Master Chief.

The first game in the series was released in 2001 for the original Xbox with Halo: Combat Evolved and it’s fair to say that this Xbox-exclusive changed the game for the FPS genre on consoles. With each release that followed, the original developers of the series, Bungie, improved on its predecessor in almost every way with arguably its best entry arriving in 2007 for the Xbox 360, Halo 3.

Check out the Halo Infinite campaign trailer below!

Bungie later moved onto the Destiny series and the reigns were handed over to 343 Industries with the studio's first proper mainline releases being Halo 4 and Halo 5 in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Both games are not regarded as two of the best the series has to offer.

Things would improve for 343 Industries a little, but some might still say that with its most recent release, Halo Infinite, the series had lost some of its spark. Initially, Halo Infinite was intended to be an Xbox Series X/S launch title before it was delayed for a year for added polish and its free-to-play multiplayer had also missed the mark for many fans.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the Halo series and Halo Infinite both in the main campaign and its multiplayer is in a much better state now. However, fans expect nothing short of exceptional for the Halo series given the quality of previous titles and the fact that it’s so beloved by millions. So, to say that 343 Industries needs to knock it out of the part with Halo 7 would be a massive understatement.

Now it seems that 343 Industries is looking to right previous wrongs and could be laying the foundations for Halo 7. As spotted by Tech4Gamers, the Halo community manager tweeted a list of jobs currently available at 343 Industries which has led many to believe that this could be a recruitment push for the next Halo, and to be fair, what else has this studio worked on other than Halo?

“It's been a difficult and heartbreaking stretch for the game industry. If it can be of any help to anyone, please note there are currently open roles here at 343 Industries working on the future of the Halo franchise (including a few just added today),” said Brian Jarrad.

The list of vacancies available at 343 Industries includes lead level designer, lead gameplay designer, lead game designer, and audio director to name a few. It’s safe to assume that if this is Halo 7 (and it likely is), its release could be at least a couple of years away given that it’s not been officially announced by Microsoft yet.

Halo Infinite is out now on PC, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One.