Halo Infinite delayed until 2021

In what may or may not be a surprise given the reaction the game’s recent gameplay footage received, 343 Industries has announced that Halo Infinite has officially been delayed until next year.

“We have made the difficult decision to shift our release to 2021 to ensure the team has adequate time to deliver a Halo game experience that meets our vision,” writes studio head Chris Lee in the announcement.

“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. 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.”

The loss of Halo Infinite this year is definitely a huge blow to the launch of the Xbox Series X (and the seemingly-confirmed Xbox Series S.) To coincide with the timing of Halo’s delay, Xbox Wire published an article today reminding gamers about all of the titles that will be playable on the next generation console when it launched this autumn.

While the ability to tap into four generations of Xbox libraries is absolutely one of the Xbox Series X’s strong suits, this is still a huge blow to Microsoft’s upcoming console launches no matter how you look at it.

Source: Halo Waypoint