Last year 343 Industries, the developer behind the recent Halo installments – after taking over from Bungie – released a virtual reality (VR) installment of the famous franchise Halo: Recuit for Windows Mixed Reality headsets. While the excitement for a Halo videogame in VR was palpable, the experience turned out to be nothing more than a brief tech demo, instead of a fully fledged title everyone was hoping for. Now it seems as though the idea of Halo VR hasn’t disappeared, thanks to an appearance of a job role.
Appearing on both 343 Industries career page and Microsoft’s Linkedin, the team have been looking for a Creative Director to help deliver an all new VR experience in the Halo universe.
The vacancy – which is now listed as no longer accepting applications – states: “Halo is known for its epic sci-fi worlds, its transmedia storytelling, and its heroic gameplay – VR brings the potential for a new level of immersion in our universe. We are looking for an inspiring individual to help us pave this new path in partnership with an external development studio.”
Under responsibilities the advertisement notes that the applicant will: “Help shape the creative vision and design of a VR experience in the Halo universe”. Going on to say that they will: “Work closely with an external development partner and internal team leads to direct the tone and timber of the project with an eye towards compelling character development, innovative narrative progression, and engaging interactions/gameplay in VR.”
This is certainly encouraging for all those Halo fans out there who have embraced VR over the last couple of years. The first thought would be towards Halo 6 having a possible VR element/support. While the entire experience would be great – it’s becoming more feasible in VR, just look at titles like Archiact’s upcoming Evasion or other first-person shooters (FPS) such as Doom VFR, Apex Construct or Island 359 – there’s also the possibility of a tacked on section like that found in Gran Turismo Sport.
As there’s going to be an ‘external development partner’ also working on the project the likelihood of this being a complete separate entity along the lines of Halo: Recruit is much more feasible.
If Halo VR does come to fruition then which headsets will it support? Windows Mixed Reality is the most likely yet there’s still the lingering question of VR on Xbox One X. Halo has always been the console series’ biggest IP – even if it’s spark has somewhat diminished in recent years – so having the videogame introduce VR to the console would certainly garner a lot of interest. Whatever happens, you can be sure VRFocus will be you any news relating to Halo in VR.
Halo: Recruit will launch on 17th October 2017, exclusively for the Windows Mixed Reality platform. 
