An Uncertain Future
One Spartan to rule them all.
Since the game’s release, fans have been clamoring over the possibility of a battle royale mode being added to Halo Infinite. By now, we all know that the format is extremely popular, with similar games like Call of Duty seeing huge success after adding a battle royale feature to the game. It seems like a perfect fit for Halo’s style. Infinite already has all sorts of vehicles, a high time-to-kill, and a proven ability to support huge maps. These are features seen in most successful battle royale games, making Halo Infinite a good candidate for a future battle royale mode. But is it actually in the works?
The Community’s Response
Following Halo Infinite’s recent Season 5 update, forge tools were greatly expanded, allowing players to put programmable AI enemies into their own custom-made maps. This allowed fans to make shockingly impressive creations, one of which being a fanmade battle royale map put together by the Forge Falcons.
Although it’s still quite buggy, when it’s working it’s a blast to play. It basically functions as a full-on battle royale mode, allowing players to drop into a somewhat-large map, loot for equipment, battle enemies and AI alike, and fight to be the last spartan standing. However, it clearly lacks the polish that an official battle royale mode would have. So the question still stands, is there an official mode in the works?
Leaks and Whispers
There have long been rumors that Certain Affinity, a game studio that’s worked on Halo in the past, has been tasked with helping 343 Industries develop an official battle royale mode for Infinite. However, recent leaks suggest that this project has evolved into a standalone game separate from Infinite, and may not even be a battle royale anymore. Leaks also suggest that future Halo projects will be developed using the Unreal Engine instead of 343’s Slipspace Engine, which could give these new projects a noticeable difference from Halo Infinite in how they look and feel.
So it seems likely that the Halo franchise will be getting an official battle royale, or something similar, sometime in the future. However, it likely won’t be a part of Halo Infinite, and may not even play like Halo Infinite does. This may come as bittersweet to Halo Infinite fans who love the game’s movement and combat systems, since Certain Affinity’s project may differ from Infinite in core ways to better fit the battle royale format.
