Halo Extraction Shooter Was Reportedly Cancelled Before Campaign Evolved

Ever wonder what Halo multiplayer could have looked like if it went full extraction shooter? According to a new report, you almost got the chance to find out.

A video from well-connected YouTuber HiddenXperia, citing anonymous sources affected by the recent layoffs at Halo Studios, claims the team was once developing a multiplayer game that blended battle royale and extraction shooter mechanics. The project reportedly began as Project Tatanka, a pure battle royale set on a massive map that stitched together multiple recognizable Halo multiplayer spaces. That was in production sometime during and after Halo Infinite's development.

Tatanka eventually morphed into Project Ekur, an extraction shooter where multiple squads would drop onto Zeta Halo before the map shrank, battle royale style. Sources say you could play as either a UNSC Spartan or, for the first time ever, a Banished Brute. You'd fight both player squads and the computer-controlled Flood, which would infect parts of the map. The Flood outbreak reportedly served as a narrative bridge to an eventual Halo 7, and players could sometimes team up to take down a huge map boss.

But the ambitious idea didn't last. During Halo: Campaign Evolved's development, the studio reportedly decided to build a more traditional Halo multiplayer game in Unreal Engine instead, and the extraction shooter fell by the wayside. Even that traditional project was eventually scrapped, according to the report, as more developers were pulled onto Campaign Evolved's troubled production.

The news comes after Xbox's sweeping restructure last month essentially gutted Halo Studios, leaving only a small team to support ongoing Halo games, events, and an upcoming novel. The layoffs hit just weeks after the studio shipped Halo: Campaign Evolved, a campaign-only remake of the series' first game. The franchise now sits under the Activision umbrella.

It's a lot to process for Halo fans who were hoping for a bold new multiplayer direction. A Spartan vs. Brute extraction shooter with Flood outbreaks and boss fights sounds like a wild ride that never got to see the light of day. What do you think—would you have played Project Ekur? Let us know in the comments.