Halo Dev Replies to Battle Royale Query: "The Only BR We're Interested in Is the Battle Rifle"

343 Industries has no interest in making a Battle Royale mode for Halo.
343's Jeff Easterling and James Bachici were asked on the 343 Mixer social stream whether there would be a Battle Royale mode in Halo Infinite, and Easterling replied, "I'll tell you right now, the only BR we're really interested in is Battle Rifle."

[lxeasy]

I like this answer

[Obscure_Observer]

@Ixeasy

Me too. they just casted a STFU spell on stupid fanboys predicting this game to be a MP only game. ;)

[lxeasy]

Yeah also a part of me also thinks Halo infinite might be a next gen launch game. They've said this is the most ambitious Halo game ever made.

[Kavorklestein]

I agree.

Thank Jeebus...
Battle Royale is empty, and rather boring in My opinion, especially without squads or teams.

[Fist4achin]

Shots with the battle rifle followed up with a buttstroke and then a tea bag!

[purple101]

I like this answer also. I prefer assault rifle close to mid range to the face till the controller rumbles out their hands though...

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

I am glad 343i are not jumping on the battle royale train as Halo (and Gears of War) are basically the only remaining console arena shooters.

[lxeasy]

Yeah that's a good point

[spicelicka]

It would be kind of redundant anyway. Halo is so customizable you can make a BR mode on your own. Hell it already exists in Halo 5's custom games browser.

Forge and custom games are big and underrated part of Halo, and I'm sure Halo Infinite will have so many more tools that creating battle royale would be easy as shit.

[lxeasy]

Yeah that's true, I've played giant free for all modes in Halo forge.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Good

[annoyedgamer]

Hopefully it stays that way. And I am still waiting on the MasterChief collection to get fixed.

[Kavorklestein]

Patience, Grasshopper...
It has been revealed that you shall get your wish.

Only a little while longer.

[Cajun Chicken]

Stick to your guns. Thumbs up 343.

[Bleucrunch]

Good answer, no need to copy them...you would sully the Halo name more than you already have 343.

[BizarroUltraman]

Halo is doing just fine. Its a money maker for them with the mtx, sorta like GTA 5 for Take Two.

[slate91]

McDonald would have had BR modes in Halo, Gears, and Forza already. Lead the way Lorde Phillip.

[The 10th Rider]

Good for them. This whole barrle royale craze reminds me of the MOBA craze a little while back. So many companies decided to make MOBAs and so many of them completely fell apart. Then it was the overwatch clones. Now it's battle royale. In between it all there as the toys to life stuff. Five years from now odds are only PUGB and Fortnite will be successful, with maybe one or two others. Trying to play off the rabid success of another game typically does work out, and on the off chance it does the success typically doesn't last long.

[Goldby]

In 5 years pubg, fortnite, realm and other won't be around and He next craze will start

[The 10th Rider]

I think they will still have a solid group of players, but they won't be the phenomenon they are now. The average gamer will move onto the next craze, as you said.

[rainslacker]

Everybody jumps in because everyone wants to be one of those two that are successful in that market. Most will fail or at least not do as well, but for the two that become popular, there's tons of money to be made. Fortnite is a prime example.

[The 10th Rider]

For sure, it's huge for those that do see success. I just think it's already too late to jump on the battle royale train. There could be one or two games that manage to break out, but I think most from here on out will end up like Lawbreakers, Battleborn, or Battlecry

[rainslacker]

I don't think it's too late yet. As of right now, there are only two real players in the market, and one of them is still in an alpha pre-release stage. Given that there are publishers and devs who could probably make a fully implemented BR game faster than PUBG can get its sh*t together, it's quite possible that someone else can make their way in the market.

That being said, other devs/pubs may just use it as a game mode, without trying to make it into a Fortnite/PUBG GaaS type scenario. Much like zombies or horde modes became commonplace, I'd imagine BR will become pretty common as time goes on. Having it isn't a bad thing.

As of right now, I think it's pretty funny, and extremely premature, that so many people are acting like the fad has passed, and there is no reason for others to try their own take on it. Two successful BR games/modes is far from a milked genre.

[The 10th Rider]

@rainslacker,

Well, if you look at MOBAs there's really only League of Legends and DOTA 2 that saw massive success, with Strife, Heroes of the Storm, Smite, and a few others still being successful enough. In Toys-to-Life really only Skylanders ended up successful in the end. In terms of Overwatch style games, Overwatch and Paladins are really the only two that saw massive success. A few others have certainly been successful, but many just failed spectacularly.

From the looks of things there's typically only a handful of games that see massive success in a fad genre, while others might see some success. Fortnite and PUGB are already huge battle royale success stories, so history would tell us there's not going to be many more, if any more, that break out with similar success. PUGB's console release may be a bit of a mess, but it's primarily popular on PC and it's perfectly fine there.

As you said, I imagine it will continue as a game mode in a number of games, though maybe scaled down a bit. However I think any company chasing BR at this point is making a poor choice. What seems to happen is a genre starts to become popular and a bunch of developers think they have a great idea for a twist on it. So they start developing their game in that genre, but by the time it gets released other games have stolen the thunder, the market is saturated, people already have a game they play in the genre and don't feel like moving onto a new one, and then the game just doesn't get the success they were hoping for. In regards to battle royale, it would seem we're approaching the tail end of that. Most battle royale games that will be successful are already out or towards the end of development.

[rainslacker]

I agree. There is always going to be a limit to any market, and for games of an online competitive nature, most people are going to end up settling on a game that is more popular, because that gives the most players to compete against.

I don't think that BR has reached that plateau yet though. Fortnite is really popular, not just because its fun and engaging, but because it's the only fully completed option. PUBG is still popular as well, but I think that if other offerings came up more complete, then people would migrate away from it, and likely some from fortnite as well. PUBG needs to up their game, and spend some of that money on resources before they get left behind in a market which is likely to have a lot of new offerings in the next couple years.

As far as whether any other dev should chase it being a bad idea. That's hard to say. I feel if they are just chasing it in hopes of cashing in, then yeah, probably a bad idea. But if a dev and pub have a plan to make it successful, then I say go for it. PUBG being the only realistic-ish BR game, there is likely a place for something like that in the market. Fortnite has more whimsy to it, but something in between realistic and Fortnite could also do well.

Time will tell, but I do believe as you that there will be more failures than successes, and likely it'll just be a game mode more than a singular product as more time progresses.

[thatguyhayat]

Aaah thats the best answer. Battle royal is getting annoying

[Veneno]

Why are certain gamers still so bitter over BR? It's Solo Deathmatch. That's been around for ages. Are you against having Deathmatch?

[Goldby]

I think (at least Imo) that it's because new players (people who haven't been gaming for more than this generation) are confusing that single mode that has repllayability with content. When it's the exact opposite.
Not to mention the crazy cost of skins. The fact epic dropped support for all their other games just to chase the carrot

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

I fully believe the explosive success of Fortnite basically killed the development of Unreal Tournament 4 and potential AAA games from Epic.

[Goldby]

@sciurus

Well I was more talking about paragon, something they have given up completely on, to the point the released the Ssets to unreal enhine for free.

They stopped updating the game, made really bad choices to negatively effected gameplay and match times and how they are won. It's sad too cuz one month of sales from vbucks and skins could easily cover a second team to work on paragon.

Once Phoenix rising releases by visionary games along with paragon 2* from unleashed games and they actually listen to the community and kee the things that made paragon so unique epic will see the error in giving up on it.

[BizarroUltraman]

Its Free for All with 100 peeps. Still, we don't need it in every game! Thats why I don't play Zombie games anymore. It seemed everyone was putting a Zombie mode when that was the craze it got boring fast!!

[Kavorklestein]

If it was 1 v 100 with loadouts and choice of weapons etc.. that's one thing.

Random weapons and items is what ruins the fun the most, IMO.

[Specter229]

1 vs 99

[OnlyThoseOnTheFence]

Battle Royale = "We're too cheap to make actual content for our game"

[XabiDaChosenOne]

Lol good answer.

[spwittbold]

lol. day one buy just for that answer. stay away from the fads.

[rainslacker]

MS is still the publisher and producer for the game. If they decide they need a BR mode in the game, it'll come. May have a different dev make it though. It would make more sense that MS would want it given the current success of Fortnite, and the drop off of PUBG which they were banking on. Plus, MS more recently stating that GaaS were something they were more interested in.

[Obscure_Observer]

@rainslacker

Give it up, man. Your predictions were wrong. Again! BR is not gonna happen on Halo not matter how you wish for it.

http://n4g.com/news/2188327...

[rainslacker]

I wasn't predicting anything. I was saying that the final decision isn't entirely on the developer. If MS already hasn't told the dev to make it, then sure, he can assert such a claim. But MS isn't known to allow that much freedom to their developers.

And why would I wish for BR? Why would I wish against it? Would it be bad if they included it? why? because people already act like the genre is milked to death? Why are people so against a genre that is barely a year old, and only has a couple of success stories in the mix?

Personally, I don't care either way, because I don't play MP, and I'm unlikely to buy or play H:I. I just kind of laugh at all the people acting like BR is played out too much already. People beg for something new. They get it, then complain it's a fad, or that everyone is chasing the hype train, when quite literally, there are really only two games out that use the genre.

Why aren't people asking for the mode to be added? Do you not have faith that 343 can bring something special to the genre?

Think of it this way. Epic just annoucned they've made 1 billion dollars in about 6 months on Fortnite's BR. You think MS is going to look at that, and just say, "eh, no money to be made there, it's a passing fad". You think that's likely for a game mode which would have minimal costs to implement into a game that already has MP?

It may not be with Halo, but MS isn't going to ignore the market. Neither is Sony for that matter. BR is going to be around for a while. Get used to it. It'll become a game mode in many games before it dies. But no publisher is going to ignore it when the ground floor has barely been touched, and they are all going to want the next big thing in that genre.

[NotanotherReboot]

epic win response

[PapaBop]

10/10, perfect response!

[Smokehouse]

I don’t like halo but props for this.

[lellkay]

I like this.

[greywolf39]

Will 343i finally make a top quality Halo after Bungie? This is first good step, keep on going

[isa_scout]

Hope they're interested in a halfway decent story/campaign this time to. The multiplayer was on point in Halo 5 but the campaign legit sucked.

[no_more_heroes]

Sad as it is to admit, that's very true. The story had pretty much no resemblance to how they advertised it and was it was turned out...insubstantial at best.

[TheHan]

Perfect

[kevnb]

I dont see any harm in adding the mode if people want it, so long as they dont take anything else away.

[CanadianTurtle]

That's a relief. I can't imagine how disappointed people would be if the new Halo ended up being a BR rip off. This was actually my biggest fear with the game. I'm glad we can put that rumor at rest.

[lociefer]

I don't play halo nowadays, but massive respect for them

[shiva1]

343 show some gameplay in this new engine at gamescom please.... Cant wait to see what you have in store...

[SuperJay182]

I'm glad actually.

Yes, Battle Royale is unquestionably popular, but every game that tacks a battle royale mode on just saturates the market.

I'm actually disappointed Battlefield are doing it, but at least you can blow buildings up, so that's something.

[chiefJohn117]

Thank God keep that bs out of halo

[FernDiggidy]

Thank you <3

[Sevir]

Good, the less developers jumping on this bandwagon the better, I don't care for Halo, but I'd hate to see this franchise adopt this game mode to bolster relevance just because this is the new hot thing. Blaze a new trail and leave it for the likes of COD, Battlefield, Fortnite and every other floundering looking to cash in