More information has come out about Halo Studios’ scrapped battle royale game; the studio is instead making a multiplayer extraction shooter experience, according to a new report.

Halo’s “Project Tatanka” Battle Royale has turned into something new

Halo is in a big transition period after 2021’s Halo Infinite struggled to maintain a steady flow of new content to its multiplayer crowd. In 2024, Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, confirmed that all Halo projects moving forward will be built using Unreal Engine 5 instead of the studio’s in-house Slipspace engine, which was reportedly one of the root causes of Halo Infinite‘s many development woes. A ground-up remake of the first Halo game, named Halo: Campaign Evolved, is Halo Studios’ first UE5 project, planned to be released this year.

In the months following Halo Infinite‘s release, rumors began swirling about a multiplayer battle royale mode that was being co-developed with Certain Affinity, dubbed Project Tatanka. The battle royale, which was being built in the Slipspace engine, was initially thought to be a new mode set to be added to Halo Infinite, but it was later reported that it would be a separate entity, similar to Call of Duty: Warzone.

Well known industry insider, Rebs Gaming, has come out with a new report about Halo Studios’ Project Tatanka. In the report, Reb Gaming states that Tatanka, which was previously said to have been canceled, had turned into a new entity known as Project Ekur, a PvE extraction shooter that’s being built in Unreal Engine 5. Rebs went on to say that Halo Studios was looking at the landscape of battle royale behemoths like Fortnite, Warzone, and Apex Legends, and decided to shift Tatanka towards an extraction experience, a growing genre that isn’t filled with quite as many dominant forever games.

Part of Rebs Gaming’s new report also mentioned the possibility of Project Ekur being “absorbed” into the multiplayer suite of Halo Studios’ next mainline Halo game. It wouldn’t replace the classic Halo multiplayer modes, but instead be an additional mode that’s part of the suite. It’s interesting that Tatanka, which was originally rumored to be a Halo Infinite mode that was reportedly supposed to serve as a narrative bridge to Halo Infinite‘s direct sequel, is instead now rumored to be part of the first new Halo game in the franchise’s UE5 era. Since Halo Studios is currently focused on rolling out Halo: Campaign Evolved, virtually nothing is known about the next mainline game in the series.

If Rebs Gaming’s report turns out to be true and there really is a Halo extraction shooter on the way, whether part of the next mainline Halo or a separate entity, it will have a lot of competition. Currently, the two biggest extraction shooters on the scene are Arc Raiders and Bungie’s Marathon. The latter poses a uniquely ironic situation where Halo‘s extraction shooter would be in direct competition with a game made by the studio responsible for the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Project Tatanka was facing a heap of battle royale competition when it was still being worked on. It seems like that might not change with this shift to an extraction shooter in Project Ekur.

As for when fans can look forward to concrete info, Rebs Gaming expects that official information about Project Ekur could potentially be revealed by Halo Studios in December during Halo Fest. However, there’s a possibility an Ekur tease could happen at Xbox’s Summer Game Fest showcase in June, though Halo Studios may not want to take any buzz away from Halo: Campaign Evolved, as the remake’s release date is expected to be unveiled during the event. For now, it seems there’s a lot for Halo fans to look forward to with the franchise’s switch to UE5, and official word about Project Ekur is surely right around the corner.