Halo‘s multiplayer identity has revolved around controlling its arenas’ sandbox for decades, but things may have taken a far different turn. As the series keeps trying to find its footing in today’s competitive market, rumors suggest it could lean into gaming’s most popular online trend. According to a recent report from insider Rebs Gaming, the next Halo may be tied to a ‘Project Ekker’ that was developed as a PVE extraction shooter.
Before we get into what Project Ekker is, we have to go back a couple of years. Previously, Rebs reported that Halo Studios ditched its in-progress Halo Infinite 2 and ‘Project Tatanka’ battle royale mode when it adopted Unreal Engine. Tatanka was originally developed by 343 Industries and Certain Affinity, with playtesting allegedly occurring twice a week.
Developers from both studios thought ‘certain elements’ were fun, but the overall concept failed to impress. Then, as battle royale games were starting to fall out of favor, the studios decided to avoid chasing the oversaturated genre altogether.
By late 2022, 343 Industries was told that Tatanka would be paused, while Certain Affinity continued prototyping changes. This marked the beginning of the major shift, as the whole Halo project finally moved to Unreal Engine 5, away from the in-house Slipspace Engine. While the studio eventually announced the Halo: Campaign Evolved remake, the reworked Tatanka then became known internally as Project Ekker. Mentions of the codename were reported by Reb’s sources and also uncovered by fans through datamining.
Fast forward to 2026, Rebs Gaming claims he can now confirm that Project Ekker evolved from a Halo battle royale into a PVE extraction shooter. His sources backed this up, suggesting Ekker is Halo‘s next multiplayer-focused project.
That said, the situation is far from clear-cut. Rebs noted that getting clear, ‘direct’ confirmation has been very ‘challenging’ largely because many of his sources were laid off in January 2023 or left shortly after. One former developer, however, mentioned that as Halo Studios and Certain Affinity shifted towards the next mainline Halo, Ekker could’ve been absorbed as its new multiplayer mode.
For now, the current state of Project Ekker, the next mainline Halo, and the extraction shooter mode remains under wraps. Still, we can expect HaloFest celebration, planned for this December, to unveil what the franchise’s big experiment actually looks like.
