Co-Development Fallout: Certain Affinity’s Role in Halo Infinite’s Rumored Battle Royale Cancellation
Halo, the iconic Xbox franchise, has faced challenges in recent years under the development oversight of 343 Industries. Despite the critical acclaim Halo Infinite garnered at its 2021 launch, the game encountered difficulties maintaining player engagement as 343 worked to deliver timely multiplayer updates. While the title experienced a resurgence with the introduction of Season 5 content, recent reports suggest that the unannounced battle royale mode for Halo Infinite, known as Project Tatanka, has been cancelled.
XboxEra co-founder Shpeshal_Nick revealed this information on the XboxEra podcast, stating that he received a message last week indicating the cancellation of Project Tatanka. Notably, the battle royale mode was in co-development with Certain Affinity, a developer that had deepened its relationship with 343 Industries in April 2022. At that time, Certain Affinity expressed its commitment to further evolving Halo Infinite in new and exciting ways. While 343 Industries has remained silent on the battle royale mode, Certain Affinity hinted at its existence in late 2022, with the company’s COO, Paul Sams, acknowledging their lead role in the development of the unannounced Halo project. The cancellation of this anticipated mode marks a significant development in the ongoing narrative surrounding Halo Infinite’s post-launch content.
Reacting to the information from the XboxEra podcast, video game historian and leaker Liam Robertson also confirmed the cancellation of the Halo battle royale project in a post on X Tuesday. “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,” he said.
Early last year, in the wake of a spate of layoffs at Microsoft that impacted developers at The Coalition, Bethesda Game Studios, and 343 Industries, the Halo maker had assured fans that it would continue development on the franchise “now and in the future.” This came after rumours that claimed development on future Halo games were being handed over to a third-party studio, with 343 Industries being moved to a supervisory role.
343 Industries also saw a flurry of high-level departures since the release of Halo Infinite, hinting at instability at the studio. 343 founder and lead Bernie Ross, who had worked on Halo titles for 15 years, stepped down in September 2022. The studio also went through restructuring, with Bryan Koski, who previously took care of marketing for Halo, becoming GM of the franchise, while Elizabeth Van Wyck heading business and operations.