Halo Infinite and 343 Industries Community Lead Brian Jarrard has called out speculations for the upcoming sequel’s battle royale mode in a tweet, confirming again the mode wouldn’t make an appearance.
Jarrard started his morning earlier this week with the smell of “fresh unfounded Halo Infinite rumors,” reiterating no official information existed around a free-for-all multiplayer battle royale in development. Since the game was revealed earlier in 2020 with information around its campaign and traditional multiplayer modes, various fans and outlets discussed plans for the popular mode to receive the Halo treatment. But the mode was never in the pipeline for 343, who delayed Halo Infinite in order to focus on polishing its single and multiplayer components. Unsurprisingly, the latest sixth major sequel would feature a high profile multiplayer mode with cross play between the PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X versions.
“I’m aware we could help solve this with real news,” Jarrard added in a follow-up tweet, promising more news was coming in a year-end update. “We certainly have some things we’re overdue on and eager to talk more about.”
Much of 343 Industries’ development changed when Halo Infinite was delayed in August 2020. This proved to be a significant hit for the Xbox Series X, which had missed the game’s opportunity as a killer launch title. Instead, challenges from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and shifts in team management had reportedly set development back even further than expected. This spurred more rumors, including longer delays due to the outsourcing and inclusion of a fully free-to-play multiplayer mode and its battle royale inclusion. But ultimately, 343 had reeled back from marketing, trailers and further updates since the eight-minute campaign demo was revealed on July 2020.
Halo franchise head Frank O’Connor replied to fans on gaming forum Resetera in 2019, bluntly confirming that no plans were made for the battle royale mode. He also suggested the mode could easily be built using the custom Forge tool within Halo 5 Guardians and its dedicated PC app. O’Connor reassured fans Halo Infinite would still bring back the classic multiplayer as it did with nearly all of the series installments. These modes would include Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, SWAT, Oddball and the flood-based Infection.