The stratospheric success of games like Fortnite and Playerunknown's Battlegrounds in the past year has led to a wave of copycat battle royale survival games and modes.  Even franchises like Call of Duty aren't immune, with Black Ops 4 adding a new battle royale mode called Blackout while ignoring the usual single-player campaign. 

It seems the Halo series will not be following the trend, though.  In a Halo 5-focused "social stream" hosted on Microsoft's Mixer platform last night, 343 Industries writer Jeff Easterling said the studio is not working on a battle royale mode for the upcoming Halo Infinite . 

A viewer plainly asked, "Will there be battle royale in Halo Infinite?"  Easterling responded definitively, "I’ll tell you right now, the only BR we’re interested in is Battle Rifle, the original BR.  So calm yourself." 

This is actually one of the most concrete pieces of information we've gotten about Halo Infinite since the game's existence was first revealed in a short, gameplay-free, in-engine E3 trailer .  Xbox marketing chief Aaron Greenberg said in a Youtube Live interview at the show that the game's new Slipspace Engine was built "purposefully to take Halo in a whole new direction," but he didn't go into detail on what exactly that means.  Greenberg also acknowledged in that interview that "it’s becoming more of a service-based industry and digital-first business, and so because of that we’re definitely thinking about Halo that way," perhaps hinting at a longer-term, games-as-a-service model for the game's online competition. 

Regardless, we now at least know that "new direction" doesn't involve putting a bunch of Halo soldiers on an ever-shrinking battlefield and forcing them to pick each other off until only one is left.  Of course, Microsoft and 343 Industries could change their minds on the subject between now and the time Halo Infinite is finalized.  And with Fortnite reportedly making almost obscene amounts of money for Epic, they may not be able to ignore the mode forever.