Halo community director calls out ‘unfounded’ rumors surrounding Halo Infinite

Brian Jarrard, Halo‘s community director, called a fresh round of rumors surrounding Halo Infinite, including an alleged battle royale mode and multiple spin-offs, “unfounded” yesterday.

Several sites reported on a rumor circulating on Twitter, allegedly leaking information about Halo Infinite and developer 343 Industries’ future plans for the title and franchise. The Twitter thread, originally posted by GameLeaksRumours on Oct. 24, has since been deleted. An archive can be accessed here.

The rumor that received the most attention was about a potential battle royale mode in Halo Infinite, a hot topic genre in recent years. While several games started off or surged into popularity as a battle royale, such as PUBG and Fortnite, established shooter franchises like CS:GO and Call of Duty have followed suit with Danger Zone and Warzone respectively to cash in on the trend.

“343 is planning to release battle royale in 2021, for free, set in Zeta Halo,” GameLeaksRumours wrote. “This is coming from Microsoft and not directly from 343 as they said the only ‘BR’ they wanted was the Battle Rifle.”

According to the account, the “exclusive leaks” were compiled from an anonymous source, who originally posted to Reddit, and should be taken “with a grain of salt.”

It seems that one of the century’s most popular shooters would be resisting the trend, however. While Jarrard didn’t address the battle royale issue directly, he acknowledged that more can be done to quell the rising tide of questions from the fanbase.

“I’m aware we could help solve this with real news,” Jarrard wrote. “We certainly have some things we’re overdue on and eager to talk more about.”

Halo Infinite, the sixth main entry of the beloved franchise, was originally intended to be a launch title for Microsoft’s next-generation consoles. 343 announced in August that the title will be delayed to 2021 due to “development challenges.”

Jarrard wrote that he “100 percent [understands] and [appreciates] the passion the Halo community has,” and called for a “bit of patience and understanding” owing to an “incredibly challenging” year. The development team is “pulling together a year-end update” that will hopefully lay out a timeline for the anticipated entry.

“No update is going to satisfy everyone,” Jarrard said. “We want to turn the corner as 2020 comes to an end and leave the challenges of this year behind us and look ahead to 2021.”