A former member of renowned Texas-based support studio Secure Affinity has confirmed frequent reports that the team is working on a battle royale mode for Halo Infinite, calling the canceled project a potential “game changer.”

Certain Affinity has worked on several major franchises since its founding in 2006, supporting the development of games such as the Halo series, Call of Duty and Doom 2016. One of the most intriguing projects, however, was the widely rumored and oft-mentioned – but never officially confirmed – Halo-style battle royale mode.

Rumors about the project began circulating in early 2022 when Indeed Affinity announced that it would be “deepening” its relationship with Halo series administrators 343 Industries and working to further develop Halo Infinite in “new and exciting ways” – later confirming that Over 100 employees have been developing the mysterious “something” since at least 2020. However, despite the enormous amount of time and resources invested in the venture, reports surfaced in January of this year that Microsoft was pulling the plug – news that two Months later led to 25 layoffs at Indeed Affinity.

But while Indeed Affinity and Microsoft have never publicly confirmed the series of reports from reliable sources claiming that the pre-built project was a battle royale mode for Halo Infinite, Mike Clopper, former design director of Indeed Affinity, who recently joined Call of Duty studio Raven Software as designer and director – has now done just that.

“I led a large team of designers working on a discontinued battle royale mode for Halo,” Clopper wrote in an update to his LinkedIn profile (thanks VGC), adding, “I believe this product would have that “We had a lot of fun playing it and working on it, it was a fantastic experience despite the cancellation.”

Since dropping the project from Indeed Affinity, Microsoft has announced a third-person mode for Halo Infinite – due out next month – and also shared its future plans for the Halo series. 343 Industries, now renamed Halo Studios, is currently working on several new Halo games – and the studio recently released some experimental footage showing what the series could look like if it moves to Unreal Engine 5. If you’re curious, Digital Foundry shared first impressions of this “impressive” footage last week.