Halo Studios has reportedly cancelled a multiplayer mission referred to as Ekur, in a transfer that appears to align with the wide-ranging Xbox cuts introduced final week.
Halo reporter Rebs Gaming originated the story on YouTube, saying they’d heard from a number of workers at Halo Studios that Undertaking Ekur was now not in growth. The declare was backed up this afternoon by well-Microsoft-connected Home windows Central reporter Jez Corden, who stated the knowledge was “one hundred pc true”.
Every week earlier, nonetheless, Rebs Gaming had declared Undertaking Ekur – “or at the very least a part of it” – can be the following multiplayer Halo sport, based mostly on info from somebody who’d labored with Halo Studios, plus a separate “another person”. However, a “latest growth” modified this end result and prompted the newer declare that the mission is useless.
Nowhere does Rebs Gaming point out the Xbox cuts as a motive why this has occurred. The one potential clarification cited is “main growth issues” with Halo 1 remake Halo: Marketing campaign Advanced, which apparently sucked individuals away. “Someday after that, Ekur was cancelled,” stated Rebs Gaming, giving no additional element.
Undertaking Ekur was reportedly prototyped by Sure Affinity, a studio Xbox has labored with quite a few occasions prior to now. Sure Affinity constructed multiplayer maps for Halo 2, and labored on a handful of Halo initiatives, as much as and together with Halo: The Grasp Chief Assortment in 2014.
Sure Affinity reportedly received the go-ahead from Halo Studios to develop Undertaking Ekur after an Unreal-powered battle royale Halo experiment, referred to as Tatanka, did not work out. Undertaking Ekur would keep on exploring Unreal – coincidentally the engine Marketing campaign Advanced is constructed on – and use Tatanka’s map alongside Halo Infinite‘s Slipspace map.
The Undertaking Ekur prototype confronted a green-light verdict in September 2023, Rebs Gaming stated, and succeeded, after which an extraction shooter concept was toyed with earlier than a “tremendous big-team-battle concept” was settled on as a substitute. Halo 5 Warzone was cited as a touchstone for the mission, and Undertaking Ekur reportedly had playable Spartans and Elites, and full character customisation.
It is not clear at what level – if in any respect – Sure Affinity handed the mission over to Halo Studios, however dataminers and different Halo scrutinisers discovered proof of the sport current on the studio’s servers comparatively lately.
With Undertaking Ekur reportedly cancelled, a query is left dangling about whether or not there will be any aggressive multiplayer modes to accompany Halo: Marketing campaign Advanced at any level. That sport has co-op, bear in mind, however nothing else.
Halo: Marketing campaign Advanced is out in a few weeks, and regardless of divisive first impressions, does really appear to be slightly good. “I went into Halo: Marketing campaign Advanced considering it did not must exist,” wrote Dom in Eurogamer’s Halo: Marketing campaign Advanced preview lately, “however after enjoying two ranges I need full remakes of the unique trilogy and Attain.”
