A new rumor claims the next major Halo multiplayer effort may be drifting away from battle royale and toward the extraction shooter formula instead.

For years, rumors have circulated suggesting that Halo Studios wanted to bring a battle royale mode into the Halo universe, either as a standalone project or as part of a larger release. Whether that was ever true or not, the idea of a Halo battle royale always sounded to many players like Xbox chasing one of the biggest genre trends in the industry. According to the newest rumor, however, that battle royale concept has now pivoted toward the even newer trend of extraction shooters.

This is not just another story about Haven Studios and the chatter surrounding Fairgames. This particular rumor is tied directly to Halo. It comes from Rebs Gaming, who has previously shown that he can be a reliable source when it comes to the Halo franchise, but this is still a rumor and should be treated as such. Halo Studios was reportedly working with Certain Affinity on the project, and the latest codename associated with it was Project Ekur. The battle royale concept was allegedly scrapped in 2024, which meant the project needed a new direction. That is why the claim that Project Ekur was being developed as an extraction shooter until at least late summer 2023 does not sound entirely impossible.

Rebs Gaming also says that, according to his sources, Project Ekur is the next multiplayer project from Halo Studios. A separate source apparently indicated that Project Ekur has since been folded into the next big mainline Halo release, which would imply that it is not a standalone game at all, but rather one mode inside a broader title. The next era of Halo is said to adopt something closer to the Call of Duty model, where the campaign, the traditional multiplayer suite, and potentially this extraction shooter mode would all live under a single launcher, allowing players to choose what they want to jump into. Think of the way Warzone, standard Call of Duty multiplayer, and the campaign are housed under one roof.

Again, all of this should be treated with caution. Extraction shooters are currently one of the hotter trends in the industry, with games like Arc Raiders and Marathon helping define the conversation, so it would not be shocking to see a major brand testing those waters too. But for now, that is all this remains, a rumor.

Source: WCCFTech