Halo Infinite Developer Refutes Recent Battle Royale Speculation

Battle royale is a big thing in the industry right now, so it follows that there will be speculation about every major shooter having a battle royale mode. Recently, known Microsoft insider Brad Sams claimed in a video that Halo Infinite would have a battle royale mode of its own, but 343 Industries’ Frank O’Connor, who’s the franchise development director for Halo, has set the record straight.

Speaking on ResetEra, O’Connor said that Halo Infinite would not be launching with a battle royale mode – which is something that the developers have said in the past as well. O’Connor said that though Infinite’s multiplayer modes haven’t all been set in stone yet and might still be subject to changes before launch, and though 343 Industries could, if it so wished, add a battle royale mode to any of their Halo games, doing so with Infinite is not in their plans right now.

“We will not talk about the launch content of Halo Infinite until we’re ready,” O’Connor wrote. “I haven’t watched the video so if I am misinterpreting the headline as ‘Halo Infinite is launching with/as a Halo Battle Royale mode’ that is still not the case. You can probably make your own Battle Royale mode in Forge even right now though. It’s a mode not a genre.”

“The launch modes for MP are not 100% defined and are subject to change till quite late in the process – but Battle Rifle will still be there,” he added. “So you can have BR. But are we interested in big social modes with loads of organic shenanigans? Yes. Specifically A blimp full of survivors heading to an Island after a (metaphorical) lecture from Beat Takeshi? No.

“We are NOT doing this as of now – and no plans to — but Battle Royale could be made for any of the Halo games in MCC or 5 with some content and scripting additions, because it is a mode. It would have limits based on each engine. I’m pointing that out to be clear that it’s one of the ways we think about gameplay possibilities rather than a single direction for a title.”

Outside of battle royale, we know that 343 Industries have huge ambitions for Infinite, and are planning to design it as a spiritual reboot of the series. The developer has been quite open about admitting to the mistakes in its past- mistakes that it seems intent on fixing.