Halo’s Rumored Project Ekur Is Apparently Canceled, And It Sounds Like It’s More Interesting Than We Thought – WGB

Halo’s long-rumored multiplayer project, known as Project Ekur, has reportedly been canceled, bringing to an end the ongoing mysteries surrounding the future of the franchise.

The report comes from Rebs Gaming, who have spent the past few years investigating the project and its connection to Tatanka, a long-running Halo war royale project reportedly being worked on by Certain Affinity. According to Rebs, several employees of Halo Studios have told him that Project Ekur is no longer in development.

As always with Halo rumors, it’s worth emphasizing the obvious: Microsoft and Halo Studios have never officially announced Project Ekur, which technically means there’s no official cancellation either. This is a game cancellation report that has never been made public, because apparently Halo development now needs its own intelligence department.

Still, there’s been enough smoke surrounding this thing for years to go over what Project Ekur was supposed to be, and how it apparently evolved from one to another before being shelved.

The story really begins with Tatanka. Back in January 2022, Windows Central reported that Certain Affinity was working on a new mode for Halo Infinite called Tatanka, which was described at the time as something designed to appeal to players who might not jump into regular Halo Arena or Big Team Battle. Certain Affinity later confirmed in April 2022 that it was “deepening” its relationship with 343 Industries and tasked with developing Halo Infinite in “new and exciting ways,” though it did not publicly name Tatanka.

Over time, Tatanka was realized in Halo’s war royale project, or at least something of a close battle. Reports and leaks have suggested pods, larger maps, factions and a more accessible multiplayer structure. But like most things connected to the post-Halo Infinite era, the direction of the project seems to change over and over again.

In early 2024, reports said Tatanka had been cancelled. Game Developer described it as an “open secret” Halo battle royale project from Certain Affinity and 343 Industries that was reportedly dead, while other reports suggested that the idea didn’t just disappear but may have evolved into something else. That other seems to have been Project Ekur.

According to a recent report by Rebs, Ekur started after the withdrawal of the Tatanka war royale concept, when Halo Studios began to look seriously at how to move the franchise to the Unreal Engine. That official move was finally announced in October 2024, when 343 Industries was rebranded as Halo Studios and confirmed that future Halo projects would use Unreal Engine 5, with several new games in development.

This is where Ekur gets really interesting. Based on Rebs’ source, Affinity was specifically given permission to make Ekur as a way to answer two very important technical questions: can the Halo assets from Slipspace and Blam be imported into Unreal Engine 5, and can Unreal be made to really feel like Halo?

Rebs says both goals were met in June 2023, with the Halo Infinite gameplay and Tatanka’s map imported to Ekur to test the AI-powered Live Fire game. His source also believed that September 2023 was the deadline for a complete prototype and a decision on whether Ekur will light up as a full project.

That makes Ekur feel less like a “new Halo mod” and more like a bridge between the old Halo and the new Halo. If the report is accurate, the project was in part a technical test designed to test whether Halo could survive the jump away from its technology and to Unreal Engine 5 without losing the feel of Halo itself.

Gameplay-wise, Ekur also seems to have changed shape. In a previous report, Rebs described it as a shooting project produced by Curtain Affinity. However, in the following video, he clarified that this explanation is outdated. According to his new source, Ekur had tested the ideas of the shooters, but ended up approaching what sounded like a “Big Team War”.

The platform allegedly involved players, teammates and a friendly AI team exploring a large map, gathering resources and battling other teams. Rebs’ source compared the project’s concept base more to Halo 5’s Warzone mode than a traditional drop-in shooter, although some drop-in features were still present.

Those details are important because they change the flavor of the project. “Halo extraction shooter” sounds like Microsoft chasing whatever genre is in vogue right now. “Halo multiplayer with AI squads, utilities, Spartans, Elites and Warzone DNA” sounds like something based on Halo history.

One of the most eye-catching details from Rebs’ report is that Queen Affinity allegedly sported Spartans and Elites, complete with custom faces, bodies and weapons. The weapon system is reportedly similar to the customization of Halo 4. If true, that alone would make Ekur stand out, as playable Elites have been one of those features that Halo fans have been clamoring to see make a proper return for years.

There was also confusion as to who exactly was developing Ekur. Rebs initially claimed that a certain Affinity was developing it, but later suggested that the studio might be developing the project exclusively for Halo Studios. Another source cited by Rebs, Technical Halo, said Cretain Affinity was not developing the next multiplayer Halo game, while a data vendor known as Grunt API reportedly found a test server connected to Ekur. Rebs said that server was called the Thunderhead server and it was proof that Ekur still existed at the time.

In other words, the trajectory of the project seems to go like this: Tatanka started out as a Halo Infinite-led multiplayer experiment, ostensibly with combat elements. That version has been canceled or abandoned. Ekur then appeared as a new prototype for Unreal Engine, possibly using Tatanka pieces as a base. It tested shooting ideas before reportedly drifting towards something closer to Halo 5 Warzone or a larger Big Team style experience. Certain Affinity may have made a prototype, while Halo Studios may have taken over later or folded it into their own internal plans.

And now, according to Rebs, it’s dead.

In his latest video, Rebs says that several employees of Halo Studios told him that Project Ekur is no longer in development. He says he doesn’t know exactly when it was canceled or the exact reason why, but he says some developers from the Ekur team were moved to Halo: Campaign Evolved last summer because that project was allegedly facing major development issues. The Rebs are careful not to say what caused Ekur’s cancellation, only to explain part of what happened.

That’s an important difference. A safe reading is not “The Campaign That Killed Ekur.” What’s safer is that Ekur may have lost staff while Halo Studios focused on other resources, and was canceled sometime after that.

If accurate, it leaves the future of Halo’s multiplayer in a strange place. Halo Studios has confirmed that multiple Unreal Engine 5 Halo projects are still in development, but has yet to explain exactly what the next multiplayer experience for Halo will be. Rebs speculates that because Halo Studios has said that fans can expect an update with the return of the Halo Championship Series, some sort of classic multiplayer experience should still be planned. But he also admits that is just speculation.

For now, Project Ekur sounds like an interesting Halo project some players may never see. What reportedly began as a way to test Halo within Unreal Engine 5 became a massive multiplayer experiment with AI teams, resource pooling, playable Elites and the influence of Halo 5 Warzone, which was ultimately canceled before it was officially revealed.

Recently, it has been reported that the main reason for Xbox’s upcoming shedding of its studios is to refocus resources on larger teams and franchises, Halo being one of them.