Halo Infinite Battle Royale Was Real and 'Could Have Been a Game Changer,' Dev Says

The Halo Infinite battle royale mode which Microsoft reportedly scrapped was in fact real, with one developer saying it "could have been a game changer" for the beloved Xbox franchise.

GameSpot spotted mention of the Halo Infinite battle royale in the LinkedIn page of Mike Clopper, the former game director at Halo support studio Certain Affinity. Clopper now works for Raven Software.

"I led a large team of designers working on a canceled Battle Royale mode for Halo." Clopper said. "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."

Though a Halo battle royale has been rumored for years following the success of the likes of PUBG and Fortnite, a report in January revealed it had been in development but is now shelved at Microsoft. Clopper is the first developer to comment on it publicly, however, with everyone else at Certain Affinity, Halo Studios, and Xbox all staying quiet.

Certain Affinity president and COO Paul Sams did tease a large project in September 2022 though, and Certain Affinity itself posted on X/Twitter in April 2022 to say it was "further evolving Halo Infinite in some new and exciting ways."

Halo has otherwise undergone some dramatic changes over the last few years, most recently with developer 343 Industries being rebranded as Halo Studios. This came after player numbers for Halo Infinite dropped off dramatically after launch as fans expressed frustration over a lack of content, poor progression systems, monetization, and more.

Microsoft is seemingly trying to restore some excitement to the flagship Xbox franchise with the rebrand, however. It also announced a shift to Unreal Engine 5 and said "multiple projects" are in development.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.