A developer at Halo Infinite support studio Certain Affinity has listed a “canceled battle royale mode” for the game on their LinkedIn resume. This person said they were in charge of a “large team of designers” making this unannounced mode that “could have been a game-changer for the franchise.”
The developer, Mike Clopper, said, “We loved playing it and working on it was a fantastic experience in spite of its cancellation.”
Clopper now works at Call of Duty studio Raven Software as studio design director, having joined the team just this month ahead of Black Ops 6‘s launch on October 25.
A battle royale mode for Halo Infinite had been rumored for years. It was reportedly in the works under the codename Project Tatanka before being rebranded to Project Ekhert in 2023 and later canceled. A report from Rebs Gaming said the game was tied into the Halo Infinite narrative and was playtested on a weekly basis. The report said the game took place on a sprawling map featuring unique biomes. It was ultimately canceled, the report said, in part due to a shift toward working on the next Halo projects instead.
Halo Infinite never got an official battle royale mode like what was reportedly in the works, but the game did introduce a battle-royale-like mode called Last Spartan Standing in 2022.
With games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, PUBG, Call of Duty: Warzone, and others dominating the headlines and sparking conversations about battle royale, it was only logical that attention would eventually turn to Halo. In July 2018, Halo franchise writer Jeff Easterling poured cold water on the idea of Halo Infinite featuring a battle royale mode by saying, “I’ll tell you right now, the only BR we’re interested in is Battle Rifle.”
In April 2019, noted Microsoft insider Brad Sams reported that 343 was considering the possibility of adding a battle royale mode to Halo Infinite in some form. Sams reported that Halo Infinite’s take on battle royale would offer something different compared to Fortnite and Apex, but we never learned any specifics.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in an interview that Halo Infinite never needed a battle royale mode in the first place.
“With a lot of the innovations and evolutions that have happened in FPS multiplayer over the years, there was something very pure about coming back to a Halo arena experience and how clean it was and how tight the gameplay loop was,” he said. “Right now on our platform there are not a lot of games that are going back to that tried and true formula and perfecting what they have, and I think that’s what the goal of this team is.”
Halo Infinite launched in 2021 and found quick success out of the gate, but it failed to break through like Microsoft wanted it to. Recently, Microsoft said Halo Infinite represented the “last remnant” of how Halo games are made, with the team significantly changing its development processes going forward. Xbox boss Matt Booty said Halo Infinite’s launch was like a runner who trips and falls at the finish line.
343 Industries recently changed names to Halo Studios and is now developing multiple new Halo games using Unreal Engine 5. For more, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of everything we know about the future of Halo.