Let’s be real—being a Halo fan in 2026 feels like riding a warthog with three flat tires. The franchise that once defined console first-person shooters is now stumbling through one crisis after another. I still remember booting up Halo Infinite back in 2021, hopeful that 343 Industries had finally cracked the code. But fast-forward to today, and the state of things is, well, messy. Massive layoffs hit 343 back in early 2023, and the studio never really seemed to recover its footing. Joseph Staten, the creative director who many of us pinned our hopes on, left not long after. Rumors of canceled story DLC, anemic multiplayer updates, and a leadership team that kept promising the moon and delivering a handful of pebbles—it all adds up to a fan base that’s exhausted rather than excited.
Does 343 even know what it wants Halo to be anymore? That’s the question I ask myself every time I scroll through the forums. They gave us Halo 4, a solid debut for the Reclaimer Saga that actually tried to deepen the Chief-Cortana bond. Then came Halo 5: Guardians, which pivoted hard into a Locke-versus-Chief narrative that alienated a huge chunk of the community. That game also introduced Warzone, a messy but ambitious multiplayer mode that felt more like a chaotic sandbox than a polished experience. With Halo Infinite, they hit reset again: a spiritual reboot that played wonderfully but launched with threads hanging loose and a live-service plan that sank faster than a pelican with a busted engine. Three games, three wildly different directions—does that sound like a studio with a clear vision?
I’ve been mulling over an idea that keeps popping up in community discussions: what if id Software took a stab at the franchise? No, I’m not talking about replacing 343 entirely—Microsoft has made it clear 343 remains the steward of Halo. But a spin-off, a side story, or even a co-development partnership? That could be the shot of adrenaline Master Chief desperately needs. Think about it. id Software has been cranking out sublime first-person shooters since Hovertank 3D in 1991. Their whole identity is built on fast, fluid, and ferocious gunplay. Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal proved they can modernize classic formulas without losing soul. The moment I first ripped through a demon horde in Eternal, I thought, “This is what I want a Halo campaign to feel like—pure, unapologetic power fantasy.”
Now, connect the dots. Halo and Doom share more than just stoic, helmeted protagonists. Both series thrive on arena-style combat where movement, weapon variety, and enemy prioritization matter. In Eternal, you dance around arenas swapping between the super shotgun, ballista, and rocket launcher to dismantle specific demons. That gameplay loop could translate beautifully to a Halo ring: replace the demons with Covenant species, reskin the glory kills into a brutal melee system (imagine a gravity hammer execution on a Brute chieftain), and layer on a story that blends the mystery of the Forerunners with the relentless pacing of a Doom game. Wouldn’t you love to pilot a Ghost across a shattered ring segment, then leap off and punch an Elite in the face before plasma-dashing to a new weapon? That’s the kind of bombastic combat id Software could deliver in its sleep.
What frustrates me most about 343’s tenure isn’t a lack of talent—it’s a lack of consistency. The gunplay in Infinite is genuinely superb; the grappling hook might be the best addition to the sandbox since the battle rifle. But the post-launch content has been a drip-feed of broken promises. Remember the long wait for co-op campaign? The canceled split-screen? The Forge mode that finally arrived in late 2022 only to feel like a brilliant toolkit with no audience left? Meanwhile, the shop prices stayed premium, and core playlists that should have been there at launch took months to appear. When I look at how id Software handled Doom Eternal’s post-launch, with two meaty campaign expansions and a steady flow of free master levels, the contrast is stark. They know how to support a game without leaving players feeling like an afterthought.
I can already hear some of you asking: “But isn’t id Software busy with their own projects?” Sure, they’ve probably got another Doom or maybe even a Quake revival in the pipeline. However, Xbox Game Studios is a massive organization now, and collaboration is the whole point of having so many teams under one roof. A small strike team within id—maybe some of the key people who worked on Eternal’s level design and combat—could easily partner with a skeleton crew from 343 to craft a standalone Halo experience. It doesn’t need to be a full mainline entry. Even a 10-hour campaign where you play as a new Spartan on a lost Halo, with id’s signature push-forward combat, would rejuvenate the brand.
Here’s another what-if: imagine id Software bringing their tech expertise to the table. id Tech engine is a marvel of optimization and graphical fidelity. Doom Eternal runs at a buttery 60 fps on consoles while throwing dozens of enemies at you. Could you imagine a Halo game with that level of performance, combined with expansive ring environments, dynamic destruction, and a responsive melee system? It might even force 343 to finally ditch the Slipspace Engine’s technical debt that has slowed down content creation for Infinite.
I’m not saying handing the keys to id would magically fix everything. Halo has a weightiness, a particular rhythm of combat that is distinct from Doom’s twitchy chaos. The trick would be blending the two: id understands that a shooter needs a core loop that’s fun even before you layer on story. If they could keep Halo’s strategic shield management, grenade ballet, and thirty-second bouts of tactical tension while injecting the visceral punch of a super shotgun and the mobility of a dash mechanic? Man, I’d pre-order that yesterday.
The clock is ticking. By 2026, Halo Infinite is still limping along, but the community’s patience is threadbare. 343 Industries may well be working on the next big thing behind closed doors, and I hope they knock it out of the park. But if that next entry feels like another identity crisis, maybe it’s time for a fresh perspective. Let id Software loose on a Halo ring, even just once. What’s the worst that could happen—it’s already hard to watch the series I grew up with stumble from one phase to the next. At least with id’s track record, I know I’d be having a blast while they try.