Halo’s Rumoured Project Ekur Has Apparently Been Cancelled, And It Sounds Like It Was A Lot More Interesting Than We Thought – WGB

Halo’s long-rumoured multiplayer mission, generally often called Venture Ekur, has reportedly been cancelled, bringing an finish to one of many strangest ongoing mysteries surrounding the way forward for the franchise.

The report comes from Rebs Gaming, who has spent the previous few years investigating the mission and its connection to Tatanka, the long-rumoured Halo battle royale mission that was reportedly being labored on by Sure Affinity. In line with Rebs, a number of Halo Studios workers have now informed him that Venture Ekur is now not in improvement.

As at all times with Halo rumours, it’s price stressing the plain: Microsoft and Halo Studios by no means formally introduced Venture Ekur, which implies there’s technically no official cancellation both. This can be a cancellation report for a sport that was by no means publicly revealed, as a result of apparently Halo improvement lore now requires its personal forensic division.

Nonetheless, there was sufficient smoke round this factor for years that it’s price going by way of what Venture Ekur was supposedly meant to be, and the way it apparently developed from one factor into one other earlier than being shelved.

The story actually begins with Tatanka. Again in January 2022, Windows Central reported that Certain Affinity was working on a new Halo Infinite mode codenamed Tatanka, described on the time as one thing designed to attraction to gamers who may not normally leap into conventional Halo Area or Massive Group Battle. Sure Affinity later confirmed in April 2022 that it was “deepening” its relationship with 343 Industries and had been entrusted with evolving Halo Infinite in “new and thrilling methods,” though it didn’t publicly identify Tatanka.

Over time, Tatanka was understood to Halo’s battle royale mission, or at the least one thing battle royale-adjacent. Stories and leaks instructed drop pods, large-scale maps, squads and a extra accessible multiplayer construction. However like many issues hooked up to Halo Infinite’s post-launch period, the mission’s path seems to have modified repeatedly.

By early 2024, reports claimed Tatanka had been cancelled. Recreation Developer described it as an “open secret” Halo battle royale mission from Sure Affinity and 343 Industries that was now reportedly useless, whereas different reporting instructed the thought had not merely vanished however could have developed into one thing else. That one thing else seems to have been Venture Ekur.

In line with Rebs’ newer reporting, Ekur started after the cancellation of the Tatanka battle royale idea, when Halo Studios began wanting severely at methods to transfer the franchise to Unreal Engine. That official transfer was finally introduced in October 2024, when 343 Industries rebranded as Halo Studios and confirmed that future Halo initiatives would use Unreal Engine 5, with a number of new video games in improvement.

That’s the place Ekur turns into particularly attention-grabbing. Based mostly on Rebs’ supply, Sure Affinity was given the go-ahead to prototype Ekur as a manner of answering two essential technical questions: might Halo belongings from Slipspace and Blam be imported into Unreal Engine 5, and will Unreal be made to truly really feel like Halo?

Rebs claims each targets had been achieved by June 2023, with Halo Infinite’s play house and Tatanka’s map imported into Ekur for Reside Hearth gameplay checks that includes AI. His supply additionally believed September 2023 was the deadline for a full prototype and a call on whether or not Ekur can be greenlit as a full mission.

That makes Ekur sound much less like a easy “new Halo mode” and extra like a bridge between outdated Halo and new Halo. If the report is correct, the mission was partly a technical experiment designed to check whether or not Halo might survive the leap away from its personal know-how and into Unreal Engine 5 with out dropping the texture of Halo itself.

Gameplay-wise, Ekur additionally seems to have modified form. In an earlier report, Rebs described it as an extraction shooter mission being developed by Sure Affinity. Nevertheless, in a follow-up video, he clarified that this description was outdated. In line with his newer supply, Ekur had explored extraction-shooter concepts, however finally moved nearer to what seems like a “Tremendous Massive Group Battle” idea.

The alleged pitch concerned gamers, teammates and a squad of pleasant AI exploring a big map, gathering assets and battling different groups. Rebs’ supply in contrast the mission’s conceptual basis extra to Halo 5’s Warzone mode than a conventional extraction shooter, although some extraction components had been apparently nonetheless current.

That element issues as a result of it modifications your entire flavour of the mission. “Halo extraction shooter” seems like Microsoft chasing no matter style is presently trendy. “Giant-scale Halo multiplayer with AI squads, assets, Spartans, Elites and Warzone DNA” sounds way more like one thing rooted in Halo’s personal historical past.

One of many extra eye-catching particulars from Rebs’ report is that Sure Affinity was allegedly pitching playable Spartans and Elites, full with face, physique and armour customization. The armour system was reportedly much like Halo 4’s customization. If true, that alone would have made Ekur notable, since playable Elites have been a kind of options Halo followers have been asking to see correctly return for years.

There was additionally some confusion over who was really creating Ekur. Rebs initially stated Sure Affinity was creating it, however later instructed the studio could have solely prototyped the mission for Halo Studios. One other supply cited by Rebs, Technical Halo, claimed that Sure Affinity was not creating the following Halo multiplayer sport, whereas a dataminer often called Grunt API had reportedly found a take a look at server related to Ekur. Rebs stated that server was known as a Thunderhead server and was proof that Ekur nonetheless existed on the time.

In different phrases, the mission’s path appears to go one thing like this: Tatanka started as a Sure Affinity-led Halo Infinite multiplayer experiment, apparently with battle royale components. That model was cancelled or deserted. Ekur then emerged as a brand new Unreal Engine prototype, probably utilizing items of Tatanka as a basis. It explored extraction-shooter concepts earlier than reportedly drifting towards one thing nearer to Halo 5 Warzone or a a lot bigger Massive Group Battle-style expertise. Sure Affinity could have prototyped it, whereas Halo Studios could later have taken over or folded it into its personal inner plans.

And now, based on Rebs, it’s useless.

In his newest video, Rebs says a number of Halo Studios workers informed him Venture Ekur is now not in improvement. He says he doesn’t know precisely when it was cancelled or the precise purpose why, however he claims some builders from the Ekur staff had been moved onto Halo: Campaign Evolved final summer time as a result of that mission was allegedly dealing with main improvement issues. Rebs is cautious to not say this instantly triggered Ekur’s cancellation, solely that it could clarify a part of what occurred.

That is a crucial distinction. The protected learn just isn’t “Marketing campaign Advanced killed Ekur.” The safer learn is that Ekur could have misplaced workers whereas Halo Studios centered assets elsewhere, and was cancelled someday after.

If correct, it leaves Halo’s multiplayer future in a wierd place. Halo Studios has confirmed that a number of Unreal Engine 5 Halo initiatives are in improvement, nevertheless it has not correctly defined what the following main Halo multiplayer expertise will likely be. Rebs speculates that as a result of Halo Studios has stated followers can count on an replace on the return of the Halo Championship Collection, some form of basic multiplayer expertise should nonetheless be deliberate. However even he admits that’s solely a guess.

For now, Venture Ekur seems like one other fascinating Halo mission gamers could by no means really get to see. What reportedly began as a approach to take a look at Halo inside Unreal Engine 5 turned a large-scale multiplayer experiment with AI squads, useful resource gathering, playable Elites and Halo 5 Warzone affect, solely to apparently be cancelled earlier than it was ever formally revealed.

Recentely, it has been reported {that a} huge purpose for Xbox’s upcoming culling of its studios is to refocus assets into its greatest groups and franchises, with Halo being one in all them.