A former member of renowned Texas-based support studio Certain Affinity has confirmed frequent reports the team was working on a battle royale mode for Halo Infinite, calling the cancelled project a potential “game changer”.
Certain Affinity has worked on multiple major franchises since its founding in 2006, supporting development on the likes of the Halo series, Call of Duty, and Doom 2016. One of its most intriguing projects, however, was the frequently rumoured and oft alluded to – but never officially confirmed – Halo-themed battle royale mode.
Whispers of the project began circulating in early 2022, when Certain Affinity announced it was “deepening” its relationship with Halo series stewards 343 Industries and working to ‘evolve’ Halo Infinite in “new and exciting ways” – later confirming over 100 employees had been developing the mysterious “something” since at least 2020. But despite the massive amount of time and resources invested in the endeavour, reports surfaced this January that Microsoft was pulling the plug – news that was followed by 25 layoffs at Certain Affinity two months later.
But while Certain Affinity and Microsoft have never publicly confirmed the succession of reports from reliable sources claiming the canned project was a battle royale mode for Halo Infinite, former Certain Affinity design director Mike Clopper – who recently joined Call of Duty studio Raven Software as a design director – has now done just that.