Cancelled Halo Battle Royale has reportedly evolved into an Extraction Shooter

While Halo Infinite may not have been the grand revival that Microsoft were hoping for the franchise, series co-developer Certain Affinity looked to be prepping to offer their own take on the franchise with a battle royale game. Ultimately this project never came to be, with reports claiming back in 2024 that the BR title had been cancelled. It appears rumours of the game’s death were somewhat exaggerated however, with insiders now claiming that the team pivoted and reworked the Battle Royale title into an extraction shooter.

As reported by known Halo insider Rebs Gaming, new details surrounding the previously in-development Battle Royale (known as project Tatanka) have been shared, with the insider claiming that:

“Tatanka was not a game mode for Infinite that would have been added to the multiplayer playlist menu, but rather a new separate PVP game co-developed by 343 Industries and Certain Affinity in the SlipSpace Engine.”

According to Rebs, “battle royale games were falling out of favor” and so 343i/Certain Affinity “wanted to avoid chasing an oversaturated genre”. As a result, Project Tatanka was ultimately cancelled, being spun off into a new project: Ekur.

Though the current status of Ekur is unknown, the project is (or was) “a PVE extraction shooter” which was in development at least up until “the end of Summer 2023”.

Some sources claim that Ekur is slated to be the next multiplayer Halo entry, while others heard that it will instead be included as a new mode in the next Halo game.

Either way, according to Rebs, project Tatanka (now project Ekur) is still happening in one form or another.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this shift to an extraction shooter? Does Halo need to chase trends? Would you prefer a Halo Battle Royale or Extraction Shooter? Let us know down below.

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