Microsoft and 343 Industries are hitting fans with a mixed wave of news as the release window for the Xbox Series X has been narrowed to November of this year, but the highly-anticipated Halo: Infinite has been delayed to 2021, no longer being a launch title for the next-gen console.
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“Our vision at Xbox and 343 Industries has always been to deliver the most ambitious Halo game ever for our fans, while also balancing the team’s well-being,” Will Tuttle, Xbox Wire Editor-in-Chief, wrote in the official announcement. “To do that, we will need some more time to finish the critical work necessary to launch Halo Infinite, which will come in 2021.”
“The decision to shift our release is the result of multiple factors that have contributed to development challenges, including the ongoing COVID-related impacts affecting us all this year,” Chris Lee, 343 Industries Studio Head, wrote in the studio’s official statement. “I want to acknowledge the hard work from our team at 343 Industries, who have remained committed to making a great game and finding solutions to development challenges. However, it is not sustainable for the well-being of our team or the overall success of the game to ship it this holiday. We know this will be disappointing to many of you and we all share in that sentiment. The passion and support the community has shown over the years has been incredible and inspiring. We wanted nothing more than to play our game with the community this holiday. The extra time will let us finish the critical work necessary to deliver the most ambitious Halo game ever at the quality we know our fans expect.“
Despite this delay, however, Microsoft has confirmed its next-gen console will be hitting shelves globally this November with over 100 titles optimized for the Xbox Series X, as well as featuring thousands of games to play across the four generations, and the console will feature hardware-accelerated Direct X raytracing, frame rates up to 120 frames per second, faster loading times and Quick Resume for multiple games. Some of what players can look forward to upon the console’s release include:
- More than 50 new games planned for this year across generations and optimized for Xbox Series X, including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Dirt 5, Gears Tactics, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Watch Dogs: Legion. With Smart Delivery you only have to buy these games once to play the best versions for your console, across generations.
- New games developed for Xbox Series X and launching with Xbox Game Pass, including exclusives like The Medium, Scorn, Tetris Effect: Connected and more.
- More than 40 popular games newly optimized to take full advantage of Xbox Series X such as Destiny 2, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Madden NFL 21 and more.
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In addition to the titles players can purchase for the new console, developers are also hard at work for new games set to come to Xbox Game Pass, which will now extend past its PC and console base to Android phones or tablets that will allow games to be played on the go beginning September 15! The backwards compatible team at Microsoft is currently working to expand their curated list of titles from across its four generations of consoles to be played on the Xbox Series X, with new optimizations including increased resolutions up to 4K, new HDR reconstruction techniques for games developed years before the tech came into existence, applying anisotropic filtering to improve image quality and creating ways to increase or double the frame rate of some titles!
