The rumored unannounced Halo Battle Royale game codenamed Project Ekur was reportedly canceled due to Campaign Evolved and market research.
In his new video, Halo insider and content creator Rebs Gaming shared that the cancellation of the rumored Project Ekur was the result of shifting creative direction, leadership mismanagement, mounting issues with Halo: Campaign Evolved, and market research indicating that fans were not interested in a Halo Battle Royale game.
According to Rebs, Michael “Forge Lord” Shaw served as Project Ekur’s lead game designer after transitioning from leading development on Halo Infinite’s Forge mode in October, 2024. Damon Kahn reportedly acted as executive producer, while former Call of Duty: Warzone associate creative director and Apex Legends principal designer John Williams joined the project as creative director in August, 2025.
Rebs said Williams’ hiring aligned with a major shift inside Halo Studios, when studio head Pierre Hintze reassigned Ekur developers to work on Campaign Evolved. The content creator cited public statements from former Halo Studios employees, including ex-art director Glenn Israel, who wrote, “In August 2025, the catastrophic mismanagement of Halo Campaign Evolved created an opportunity for senior Halo Studios representatives to reassign the art team from my unannounced project.” Sources confirmed to Rebs that the unannounced project referenced by Israel was Project Ekur.
Rebs claimed Project Ekur was built entirely in Unreal Engine rather than using Halo Studios’ hybrid approach for Campaign Evolved. While developers reportedly succeeded in recreating Halo’s gameplay mechanics and playtested the project daily, there were internal disagreements over whether it truly captured the franchise’s signature feel. To address those concerns, the content creator mentioned that leadership redirected the team to recreate Halo Infinite’s Live Fire multiplayer map and build a Slayer prototype in Unreal Engine. Although some developers wanted to incorporate traditional Halo arena multiplayer into Project Ekur, leadership allegedly decided any classic arena experience would only be considered after launch.
According to Rebs, the biggest factor behind Project Ekur’s cancellation came late in development when Halo Studios reportedly conducted market research on the Halo franchise. He claimed the findings showed that most Halo fans wanted a traditional Halo experience rather than a battle royale. At the same time, Campaign Evolved was reportedly encountering significant development problems that required additional staff.
