The Halo franchise has experienced a challenging few years under the stewardship of 343 Industries. Once a pioneering force in the world of first-person multiplayer shooters, the iconic Xbox series has struggled with its recent offerings. Although Halo Infinite was well-received upon its release in 2021, player engagement waned as 343 Industries worked to deliver timely seasonal updates to retain its audience. Despite a brief resurgence in player numbers with the launch of season 5 content late last year, reports now indicate that the game’s anticipated battle royale mode has been scrapped.
This revelation emerged from Shpeshal_Nick, co-founder of XboxEra, during a recent episode of the XboxEra podcast. He disclosed that the project, codenamed Tatanka, is said to have ceased development, citing a direct message he received last week. “Tatanka has been cancelled,” he stated.
The battle royale mode was intended to be co-developed by Certain Affinity, a studio with a long-standing relationship with the Halo franchise. In April 2022, Certain Affinity mentioned its intentions to strengthen collaborations with 343 Industries. “We’ve been part of the Halo franchise for more than 15 years, and we’re honored to say we are deepening our relationship with 343 and have been entrusted with further evolving Halo Infinite in some new and exciting ways,” the company stated. While 343 has been relatively quiet about the battle royale mode, Certain Affinity hinted at its involvement in late 2022, confirming that around 100 developers had dedicated over two years to the project. “It’s something big and new for the franchise,” remarked Certain Affinity COO Paul Sams in September 2022.
In response to the XboxEra podcast’s announcement, video game historian and leaker Liam Robertson also corroborated the cancellation via a post on X. He noted, “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.”
Appreciate the clarification, but we weren’t even trying to confirm whether something that technically has never been announced…has been cancelled.
We thought (clearly mistakenly) we were having an off hand discussion about someone else’s rumour… https://t.co/d6GVwYwyWD
— “Good guesser” Nick (@Shpeshal_Nick) January 16, 2024
In early 2023, following significant layoffs at Microsoft impacting various development studios, including The Coalition and Bethesda Game Studios, 343 Industries reassured fans of its commitment to the Halo franchise. This response followed rumors suggesting that future Halo game development might shift to a third-party studio, with 343 taking a more supervisory approach.
The studio has also faced turbulence, with several high-profile departures following the release of Halo Infinite. 343 founder Bernie Ross, who contributed to Halo titles for 15 years, stepped down in September 2022. With this transition, Bryan Koski, previously responsible for Halo marketing, assumed the role of general manager for the franchise, while Elizabeth Van Wyck took charge of business and operations.
Halo Infinite’s latest update, known as the Season 5: Reckoning, was released in October of last year. This update introduced two new maps, a revamped Halo 4 Extraction mode, a new 50-tier Premium Battle Pass, and various additional features. The season also brought updates to Forge, the mode allowing players to create and customize their multiplayer maps, enabling them to populate these custom spaces with characters from the Halo Infinite campaign.
