Amid rumors that Halo Infinite co-developer Certain Affinity is making a new mode for Halo Infinite that could be inspired by battle royale, the Austin, Texas-based company has teased that is working alongside 343 to evolve Halo Infinite in "new and exciting ways."
In a tweet today, Certain Affinity said, "We're honored to say we are deepening our relationship with 343 and have been entrusted with further evolving Halo Infinite in some new and exciting ways." The tweet also links to Certain Affinity's careers page, which has a whopping 40+ open positions. It's possible the tweet is an attempt to help the company with recruiting--and that wouldn't be surprising given many companies in the video game business and outside are trying to staff up right now.
Not all of Certain Affinity's positions are for Halo Infinite, though. The company is also making a new IP and it also contributes to Call of Duty games. A spokesperson for Microsoft declined to share more information about Certain Affinity's work on Halo Infinite when asked by GameSpot.
As for what Certain Affinity's Halo Infinite work might involve, it's been reported that the studio is building a new mode for the game that could be in the vein of battle royale. Windows Central reported that this mode is in development number under the codename "Tatanka." It's described as a "newcomer-friendly" mode that isn't as demanding as Halo's trademark competitive modes.
The site reported that this mode, whatever it turns out to be, is aimed in part at people who don't necessarily play Halo and might gravitate more towards games like Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Apex Legends.
This new mode, should it be real, will connect in some way to Halo Infinite's new Forge mode, featuring community-created content, according to Windows Central. Forge missed Halo Infinite's launch and is now coming sometime during Season 3, which means it's still a long time off.
While all of that remains uncertain for now, 343 has confirmed that Halo Infinite is getting a new mode called Last Spartan Standing in Season 2, which kicks off May 3. Based on the title, it sounds like this will riff on the battle royale experience, but 343 has yet to confirm this.
For more on Halo Infinite and battle royale, check out GameSpot's breakdown of what we'd like to see from a new mode like that, based on what we know so far.
Halo Infinite Season 2: Lone Wolves also adds new maps for BTB and Area, other additional modes, and lots of significant changes.