In a recent tweet, Certain Affinity, a studio that specializes in multiplayer components for shooters like Call of Duty, Halo, and DOOM, confirmed that 343 Industries had entrusted it “with further evolving Halo Infinite in some new and exciting ways.” If you follow the page linked to by the tweet (embedded below), you’ll see Certain Affinity’s careers page, which now has dozens of open positions. The tweet might just be the company’s attempt to recruit talent, but some players are convinced that it’s for a big battle royale mode for Halo Infinite. After bursting into the scene in 2017, battle royale has been at the forefront of the video game industry. Industry giants like Call of Duty and Battlefield couldn’t help but jump on the bandwagon. It only makes sense for Halo to do so with Halo Infinite. Unfortunately, we have no idea what Certain Affinity’s take on battle royale would look like and if it is even in the works. A previous report from Windows Central suggests that the in-development battle royale mode, Tatanka, is going to be more “newcomer-friendly” when compared to Halo Infinite’s standard selection of game modes. It’s also not known if this is related to Big Team Battle: Last Spartan Standing, which was first announced back in March along with Season 2. Bringing Certain Affinity into the fold for a more extensive partnership is a step in the right direction. The studio’s community director, Brian Jarrard, recently spoke to fans on Reddit and admitted that Halo Infinite did not “meet player and community expectations.” Jarrard describes 343’s predicament as a “difficult situation that’s going to take the team time to work through.” Certain Affinity can help 343 focus on what it wants to happen for Halo Infinite while giving fans something else in the interim.
— Certain Affinity (@CertainAffinity) April 12, 2022 Halo Infinite stormed out of the gates to rave reviews, but all of that excitement from fans turned to frustration following the lack of steady content. To make matters worse, 343 has continually failed to deliver promised features for the live-service shooter such as campaign co-op and the Forge map editor. Roughly half a year later and 343 is just getting started with the long and slow task of getting Halo Infinite up to speed. Hopefully, Halo Infinite’s forthcoming second season delivers on all of 343’s promises and more. Otherwise, 343 will have serious problems retaining its dwindling playerbase and attracting more players going forward.
