Halo lead mocks rumors that the studio is chasing Arc Raiders and Marathon with a PvE extraction shooter spin-off

Extraction shooters are all the rage right now between Arc Raiders and Marathon, but you might want to take rumors of an extraction shooter set in the Halo universe with a grain of salt.

A new video report from Rebs Gaming recently claimed that plans for a long-rumored Halo battle royale - said to have been a partnership between Certain Affinity and Halo Studios - had been shelved in favor of a PvE extraction shooter codenamed Project Ekur.

The channel's sources are a little unclear on how Project Ekur would come out, however. Whether it's a standalone multiplayer release or a bolted on mode for whatever the next mainline Halo ends up being called is up in the air, apparently.

Either way, Halo Studios community director Brian 'ske7ch' Jarrard seemingly mocked the report on social media. "Exclusive report: someone told me the next Halo game is a pottery party game," he tweets, "(am I doing it right?)"

Jarrard's joke was posted alongside a friendly bit of brand synergy as Halo Studios celebrated the release of Kiln, an actually very real pottery party game from fellow Xbox-owned developer Double Fine.

"Hard to remember when it wasn't always super serious doom posting and infighting and data mining and rumors," he says in a follow-up tweet. "I totally get it, especially when it always drives engagement, but yeah, I think we all long for when it was about having fun and shared enjoyment of a videogame. We'll get back there."

Of course, the community lead's reply isn't actual confirmation or denial of anything. Similarly, all rumors and reports shouldn't be taken as fact until more concrete information comes along, although one Halo dataminer did find mentions of Ekur dating back to last year.

With that being said, a PvE Halo extraction shooter isn't the most outlandish idea in the world. Heck, a former series developer even said an ODST game very similar to Helldivers 2 had been pitched many moons ago but eventually went nowhere, and I could totally see that working.

Underpowered grunts facing hordes of outsized aliens, landing onto maps in drop pods, and calling in supplies from above is a particular type of power fantasy that ODSTs lend themselves to very well. Or you could just make those grunts overpowered as heck and replace the ODSTs with super soldier Spartans. I'd be down for both.

In the meantime, the developer's gearing up to release a second pretty faithful remake of Halo: Combat Evolved sometime later this year, this time with a three-mission prequel arc and a customizable Master Chief. Back when 343 Industries rebranded into Halo Studios, it also announced there were multiple Halo games in development, so it's entirely possible (if not incredibly likely) that another multiplayer Halo project is also in the pipeline.

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