A leaker has claimed that Halo Infinite's battle royale mode has been in the works for years, despite developer 343 Industries claiming Halo Infinite won't feature the popular competitive mode. The game is scheduled to launch this year, and will include free-to-play multiplayer in a series first, but whether or not a battle royale mode will be available is still unclear.
343 Industries announced Halo Infinite's free-to-play multiplayer back in 2020, a few months before the game was originally set to launch alongside the Xbox Series X/S consoles. The developer revealed more details earlier this summer, confirming Halo's multiplayer will have new seasonal content introduced roughly every three months. Seasonal content will aim to keep modes, missions, and gameplay fresh with new additions, while still honoring the core Halo experience and the franchise's roots. Halo Infinite's first season will be called "Heroes of Reach," and will begin once the game launches later this year.
Known video games leaker Tom Henderson has shared unconfirmed information on Halo Infinite's alleged battle royale mode, claiming that while he doesn't know if the mode has been scrapped, he believes it was in development at some point, and had been so for "years" (via TheGamePost). Posting on Twitter, the leaker added that those looking to avoid spoilers should be careful, as the game's BR mode is apparently "heavily connected" to the core Halo Infinite campaign. While unsure, Henderson believes the battle royale mode could be used to "incentivize people to purchase the full game in some way."
Read the Halo Infinite battle royale claims on Twitter here.
Rumors of a battle royale mode for Halo Infinite have been rife for a while, despite multiple denials from the developer. The game recently gave players their first taste of Infinite's multiplayer thanks to a beta test weekend, but the play test may have accidentally given away what could be evidence that a battle royale mode really exists. Halo Infinite dataminers uncovered an audio file that appears to feature the multiplayer announcer saying "Battle Royale," adding more fuel to the speculative fire. 343 Industries hasn't commented on the leak, but it's worth noting that datamined content can sometimes include canceled ideas that might not make it to release. As Henderson suggested, it's possible battle royale was once planned, but has since been scrapped.
Henderson's speculation that a battle royale mode could encourage sales of the main Halo Infinite game does sound possible. While free-to-play games can be hugely lucrative thanks to cosmetics, battle passes, and additional add-on content, 343 Industries will still want players to purchase Infinite, and the developer has yet to reveal just how the free-to-play multiplayer will tie into the campaign and story of the paid release. It's possible that 343 is using F2P games like Call of Duty: Warzone for inspiration, noting how the game works alongside existing and upcoming paid Call of Duty titles. Players will have to wait to find out if the game will really have a battle royale mode, with Halo Infinite's launch coming this holiday season.
Halo Infinite comes to PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S consoles at an unconfirmed date this holiday season.
Source: Tom Henderson/Twitter (via TheGamePost)