Halo's secret multiplayer project ditches extraction shooter for classic team battles

Halo Studios is quietly developing a large-scale multiplayer game called Project Ekur, and after two concept pivots it's landing on something familiar: big team battles, not battle royale or extraction shooters. The news comes from insider Rebs Gaming, whose earlier leak about Halo: Campaign Evolved proved accurate. For Halo fans tired of Microsoft chasing trends, this sounds like a return to form.

Two dead ends

Project Ekur didn't start as a team-battle game. It grew out of the cancelled battle royale project Tatanka, which was scrapped after Halo Studios rebranded from 343 Industries and switched from its aging Slipspace and Blam engines to Unreal Engine 5 — a move confirmed by Xbox in October 2024. From there, the concept shifted toward an extraction shooter — think Escape from Tarkov mechanics with a Halo skin — but that idea has also been dropped.

The current direction draws inspiration from Halo 5's Warzone mode and Halo 3's Big Team Battle: large maps, team objectives, and the kind of chaotic combined-arms combat the series built its reputation on. Developer Certain Affinity was brought in to prototype Ekur in 2023, specifically to test whether existing Halo assets could carry over from the old engines into UE5 while keeping the game feeling like Halo. That prototype reportedly hit an internal deadline of September 2023.

What's still unknown

Halo Studios has not announced Project Ekur, and no release window exists. The two biggest open questions are whether it ships as a standalone game or as a multiplayer component bundled with the next mainline Halo title, and whether Certain Affinity is still involved or handed development back to the main studio. Insider speculation points to a possible reveal at Halo Fest 2026, though that's not a sourced commitment from Microsoft.

The multiplayer project will need to compete in a market dominated by Warzone, Apex Legends, and Fortnite. Ekur's reported focus on large-scale, team-based play rather than solo survival mechanics could carve out a distinct niche — but only if it actually ships.

In the meantime, Halo: Campaign Evolved launches July 28 on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC via Steam. That's the first Halo title ever to release on PlayStation day one, and it arrives without multiplayer — campaign only, with three new prequel missions added on top of the original.