It does stand to reason that if they're dropping all in house engine development, a lot of roles will be freed up. It's not great and I'm personally not a fan of this consolidation of engines.

Sounds about right. I suppose they also want to distance themselves as much as possible from the antics of frank o'connor's 343i with a brand move like this.

I wonder which retcons they'll retcon. Will the foreunners be human again? Will the events of 4, 5 and infinite just be one big fever dream?

I had to check Wikipedia. It is 343 rebranded.

Alongside the engine change, the studio is seeing changes in culture, workflow, and how its teams are organized. To match that new approach, franchise stewards 343 Industries are changing their name – Halo Studios is here.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/10/06/halo-studios-unreal-engine-interview/

5 was the only I never played because i never had an Xbox past the 360. Is there a massive jump between the end of that and 6?

I feel like I'm being needlessly nitpicky but the animation of chief brandishing the energy sword at the end looks so clunky and awkward.

though generally speaking, the visuals are tight.