Dev claims cancelled Halo Infinite battle royale ‘could have been game-changing’

Certain Affinity was working on what could have been a ‘game-changing’ battle royale mode for Halo Infinite, according to the studio’s former design director Mike Clopper.

The prolific support studio, which is based in Austin, Texas, has collaborated on instalments in the Halo and Call of Duty franchises since 2007, as well as shooters Left 4 Dead and Doom.

It worked with the Xbox studio previously known as 343 Industries on Halo Infinite for several years, during which it was reported but never confirmed to have been developing a battle royale mode.

But Clopper, who this month joined Call of Duty studio Raven Software as design director, has now mentioned the unannounced Halo battle royale mode in his LinkedIn profile.

“I led a large team of designers working on a cancelled Battle Royale mode for Halo,” he wrote. “I believe this product could have been a game changer for the franchise. We loved playing it and working on it, was a fantastic experience in spite of its cancelation.”

Microsoft recently rebranded 343 Industries as ‘Halo Studios’ and confirmed that it’s working on multiple games developed with Unreal Engine 5.

The news was announced during this month’s Halo World Championship tournament, and accompanied by a video showing a technical test of various Halo-themed locations running in UE5.