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In a break from rival FPS series’, Halo: Infinite, the next game in the Halo series, will not have a Battle Royale mode. 343 Industries employee Grim stated that the dev team is not interested in the mode on the latest 343 social stream. This marks a departure from competitors in the genre, as both the Call of Duty series and the Battlefield series will be bringing a Battle Royale mode to their next major releases, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Battlefield V, respectively.

Becoming popular in recent years, the Battle Royale genre pits a large number of players, usually 100, against each other on a huge map. The borders of the map slowly shrink over the course of the match, in order to herd surviving players together and force encounters between them. The objective is to be the last man or woman standing; the game ends once the penultimate player dies. Other common features include weapon looting, vehicles, team modes, and parachuting into the map to choose a starting area. Several games have captured large audiences in this genre, such as H1Z1, Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, and Fortnite: Battle Royale. This year of releases marks the debut of triple-A developers and franchises to the genre.

Fans already worry that the Battle Royale genre will fizzle out fast, just as the MOBA craze from 2013-2015 did, at least partially. Thus, this news comes as a relief to many Halo fans, many of whom doubt that the franchise would be an appropriate home for a Royale game mode. The series has always been about high-skill battles in small to medium sized arenas, where teamwork and map / weapon control are paramount for success. Many feel that the addition of Royale would dilute the identity of the series, and cause it to fail to differentiate itself from other series like Call of Duty. In addition, Microsoft already has exclusivity for BR giant PUBG, currently one of the few major selling points for the console. So, longtime fans of the Halo series can rest easy: 343 Industries is not chasing the latest trend on the market.