The Halo Infinite battle royale mode that Microsoft reportedly scrapped was actually real, and one developer said it could have been “a game changer” for the popular Xbox franchise.

GameSpot spotted a mention of Halo Infinite Battle Royale on the LinkedIn page of Mike Clopper, the former game director of Halo support studio Indeed Affinity. Clopper now works for Raven Software.

“I led a large team of designers working on a canceled battle royale mode for Halo,” said Clopper. “I believe this product could be a game-changer for the franchise. We enjoyed playing it and working on it was a fantastic experience despite the cancellation.”

Although rumors of a Halo battle royale game have been circulating for years following the success of games like PUBG and Fortnite, a report in January revealed that it was in development but is now on hold at Microsoft. However, Clopper is the first developer to comment publicly, while everyone else at Indeed Affinity, Halo Studios and Xbox remain silent.

However, Paul Sams, President and COO of Specific Affinity, announced a major project in September 2022, and Indeed Affinity itself posted on X/Twitter in April 2022 that it was “evolving Halo Infinite in some new and exciting ways.”

Otherwise, Halo has undergone some dramatic changes in recent years, most recently with developer 343 Industries renaming itself to Halo Studios. This comes after Halo Infinite's player numbers dropped dramatically post-release as fans expressed frustration over a lack of content, poor progression systems, monetization, and more.

However, Microsoft is apparently trying to bring some excitement back into the flagship Xbox franchise with the renaming. A switch to Unreal Engine 5 was also announced and it was said that “several projects” were in development.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll be talking about The Witcher all day.