Despite being one of Xbox’s flagship franchises, Halo has been struggling for years, as its latest releases failed to meet fan expectations. The series is finally changing hands, and its new caretakers could reboot the story and focus on the Master Chief’s backstory.

According to a new report, Activision and its teams are considering multiple ideas and concepts for the future of the franchise. There already appear to be prototypes for new games that have yet to receive the green light, and one of them could tell the origins of the iconic protagonist.

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Halo could get a full reboot with its next game

The franchise went through plenty of ups and downs after Bungie stepped away and handed its creation over to 343 Industries, now known as Halo Studios. The fourth and fifth installments in the series sold very well, but divided fans because of changes to the gameplay and storytelling style.

Halo Infinite also failed to meet expectations, while Campaign Evolved came and went without making much of an impact. After that negative streak, Microsoft announced that Activision, the company behind Call of Duty, [would take over the franchise](Activision to take over Halo following Xbox layoffs). Meanwhile, Halo Studios suffered layoffs and [was reportedly relegated to a support role](Halo Studios reportedly left with just 20 employees after Xbox layoffs).

Naturally, there are plenty of questions about what lies ahead for what was once Xbox’s most important franchise. We may get an official answer in a couple of years, but insider Rebs Gaming shared a new report detailing some possible plans for the future.

According to Rebs, his source claims Activision is considering making the next Halo game a full reboot of the story. Interestingly, the project would apparently focus entirely on the origins of Master Chief.

The game could explore John-117’s childhood and military training, assuming the rumored project remains faithful to the established canon.

The insider emphasizes that the project has not received the green light yet and is actually just one of several options currently being considered. Another possibility is a partial reboot that ignores the events of the franchise’s most recent releases, a practice that has become fairly common in the film industry.

Rebs Gaming also cited a former franchise developer, who claimed that one of Halo Studios’ biggest mistakes was relying too heavily on the expanded universe. Players effectively needed to read comics, novels, and other supplemental material to fully understand the games’ story. “Listen to the fans and the developers,” the source reportedly said.

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Activision will oversee Halo, and these could be its first ideas for the franchise

The same source claimed that Activision pitched 2 Halo games before Xbox officially announced the franchise’s transition. The first was reportedly a free-to-play multiplayer title, while the second was a single-player adventure.

According to the report, Sledgehammer Games, the studio behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, CoD: Vanguard, and CoD: WWII, created prototypes for both projects using Infinity Ward’s proprietary graphics engine. It is worth remembering that Halo Infinite used Slipspace Engine, Halo Studios’ proprietary technology, while Campaign Evolved was developed using Unreal Engine 5.

The idea that the next game could be a reboot is far from impossible. TechnicalHalo, one of the community’s most well-known leakers, also claimed that the next title would be a reboot. Meanwhile, another anonymous source claimed that Microsoft [canceled a project that was in development at Halo Studios](Microsoft reportedly canceled a new Halo game after layoffs).

Of course, none of this information has received any official confirmation. Xbox has remained silent about its plans for the franchise, and the only thing we know for certain is that Rob Kostich, Activision’s head, [promised that the team’s goal is to “create the best Halo game of all time”](Activision promises to make the best Halo game ever).