Rumors can finally be put to rest after an insider shared that developer Certain Affinity has killed off the Halo battle royale project, also known as Project Tatanka.
The information came from an insider and XboxEra podcast co-host Nick Baker (aka Shpeshal_Nick), who shared the news on their podcast’s 194th episode. However, there hasn’t been any official confirmation about Tatanka’s cancellation from either Certain Affinity or 343 Industries.
Although technically unannounced and unconfirmed, Certain Affinity has discussed several times the progression of Project Tatanka within the studio. The online community theorized that this project is a Halo battle royale game after Certain Affinity made an announcement, stating that they were “…deepening [their] relationship with 343 [Industries] and have been entrusted with further evolving Halo … in some new and exciting ways.”
Further supporting this theory is a Bloomberg article discussing 343i’s financial outlook, which mentioned how Project Tatanka started as a battle royale that might “…evolve in different directions.” In light of this recent news, it’s possible that the project is not completely canceled, but has shifted its focus out of the battle royale genre instead.
Why a battle royale for Halo is a big deal
Halo players know how expansive the game’s universe is, with the franchise expanding into various formats such as graphic novels, animated and live-action series, and even tabletop games. A battle royale format for Halo would be welcome, considering its strong foundation as a shooter.
Getting a live-service Halo game that’s different from the Halo Infinite multiplayer mode would also help the franchise’s reputation. Halo Infinite, though currently enjoying a successful run, had a rocky launch a few years back due to delayed or missing features. A battle royale game, even if it’s just a separate game mode within Halo Infinite, would give players something to do aside from 4v4 or big team battle games.
Would a battle royale format have worked for Halo?
Despite the idea of a Halo battle royale sounding quite exciting, a big question remains: would the battle royale format have worked for the game? With titans such as Fortnite and Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds dominating the scene, breaking into such a saturated market might prove difficult.
If we were to use Call of Duty: Warzone’s data pattern, a Halo battle royale might prove popular for the first month before gradually losing players and stabilizing. That’s assuming that die-hard fans of the slayer mode in Halo would go out of their way to try a new game format, and again assuming that they’ll stay with battle royale instead of going back to vanilla Halo. Of course, being included in Xbox Game Pass will help the game’s initial player count.
Admittedly, it would’ve been interesting to see customized Spartans duking it out until they’re the last one standing, what with shields and other attachments such as active camo available. They could also utilize existing aspects such as Warthogs and Banshees to further intensify the game.
Considering how large-scale the project was, it’s likely we’ll see something from the canceled Project Tatanka in the future. It’s just a matter of how and when.
