Monster-Hunter-Style Title and Halo Battle Royale May be in the Works at Certain Affinity

Microsoft has been spending big bucks to expand their Xbox Game Studios lineup, purchasing the likes of Bethesda and Activision, but they’re also reportedly partnering on a significant number of colorfully-codenamed projects with third parties. These include Contraband (a co-op heist game from Avalanche Studios), Project Shaolin (a Wu-Tang Clan RPG), Project Indus (a 4X strategy title from Oxide Games), Project Dragon (an RPG from IO Interactive), and more. Well, thanks to prolific leakers Jeff Grubb and Jez Corden, we no have info on yet another potential third-party Xbox collab — Project Suerte – coming from longtime Halo and Call of Duty support studio Certain Affinity.

Per the latest episode of Grubbsnax, and confirmed by Corden in an article on Windows Central, Project Suerte is going to be a Monster-Hunter-style adventure, featuring big bosses of some type and co-op play. This project reportedly began development back in 2020, so it’s unlikely to arrive this year, but a 2023 or 2024 release may be feasible.

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According to Corden, Project Suerte isn’t the only big thing Certain Affinity are working on. Apparently, they’re also creating a new ambitious mode for Halo Infinite, which Corden says could be a take on the battle royale format. Of course, all of this is far from confirmed, so take it with a grain of salt for now.

In recent years we’ve seen a minor trend of support studios stepping out of the shadows to create their own original games. It will be interesting to see what Certain Affinity produces, but based on these rumors, it seems like Microsoft has a good amount of confidence in the team.

What do you think? Interested in an Xbox-exclusive take on Monster Hunter? Is it time to just accept that Halo battle royale is an inevitability?