Rumours suggest Halo Infinite’s Battle Royale update axed

It should be noted that the Halo Infinite Battle Royale mode was being co-developed by Certain Affinity

Kate Mills - Jan 17, 2024

An undated image of the poster of Halo Infinites season 5. — 343 Industries — An undated image of the poster of Halo Infinite's season 5. — 343 Industries

Remember Halo? The king of sci-fi first-person shooter (FPS), the game that practically invented online multiplayer as we know it? It has been in the development phase for the last several months and under the watch of 343 Industries, the series has stumbled a bit.

Halo Infinite started with a bang in 2021, critics loved it, and players enjoyed it. But then...well, then things got messy. Updates were slow, features players craved were missing, and the magic started to fade. Sure, Season 5 brought people back, but now rumours hint towards project cancellation.

Gadgets360, citing Eurogamer, reported that the information regarding cancellation rumours came from XboxEra co-founder Shpeshal_Nick.

“I got a DM about it last week, that Tatanka has been cancelled,” Nick said on the XboxEra podcast.

It should be noted that the Halo Infinite Battle Royale mode was being co-developed by Certain Affinity.

In April 2022, the developer said it was deepening its relationship with 343 industries. “We've been part of the Halo franchise for more than 15 years and we're honoured to say we are deepening our relationship with 343 and have been entrusted with further evolving Halo Infinite in some new and exciting ways,” Certain Affinity had said.

And while 343 has remained tight-lipped about the battle royale mode, Certain Affinity had hinted at the same in late 2022, confirming that the company had been the development lead on the unannounced Halo project for more than two years with close to 100 developers working on it. “It's something big and new for the franchise. But I can't say any more about it,” Certain Affinity COO Paul Sams told Venture Beat in September 2022.

Video game historian and leaker Liam Robertson, while reacting to the news, also confirmed the cancellation of the Halo battle royale project.

Taking to X (formerly named Twitter), Robertson wrote: “I talked about this last year and I can back this up. I researched it a bit. However, I think it was cancelled even earlier than this claims but yes, it was 2022.”