There's no denying the surging popularity of the battle royal genre. Creating a cultural phenomenon with titles such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite, established franchises have begun including the 100 player survivor mode. This past E3 saw the announcement of battle royal coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Battlefield 5.

But don't expect Master Chief to be taking the plunge any time soon. On a recent live stream, 343 Industries James Bachici and Jeff Easterling were asked if the previously announced Halo Infinite would include a battle royal mode. Easterling was quick to dismiss the idea "I'll tell you right now. The only BR we're really interested in is battle rifle, the original BR. So calm yourself." Before shortly resuming a previous conversation about cars.

If Microsoft isn't pushing for a battle royal in Halo, it's possibly because of their ongoing exclusive deal with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Though the 2017 game has struggled to maintain it's peak playerbase on PC, the Xbox One version has sold over 8 million copies since it's December launch. Fortnite, the most popular battle royal today, is also available on the Xbox One.