It’s going to be a weird console launch season for many reasons, but one of the few islands of pre-pandemic familiarity has been dropped. Microsoft was hoping for Halo Infinite to herald the arrival of the XBox Series X to stores, but they had to admit this morning the game cannot be finished in time for a holiday launch. It has now been pushed to a vague 2021 release date.
“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,” says Chris Lee, head of studio 343 Industries. “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…it is not sustainable for the well-being of our team or the overall success of the game to ship it this holiday.”
Microsoft first showed off gameplay footage from Halo Infinite last month, during the Xbox Games Showcase livestream. The response from fans was unkind, with the most frequent comment being that the game looked boring and unpolished. Marketing manager Aaron Greenberg went into damage control, telling the press it was a “work-in-progress,” but the damage was done and the memes could not be stopped. This one is my favorite:
We’re sure some of the more immature gamers will raise a stink, but the fact that 343 were willing to delay such an important game to get it right, instead of crunch their workers to death, is a very good thing, and more studios should follow their lead. However, this decision probably wasn’t an easy one, as it leaves the Series X without a tentpole game for a new console showdown, directly against their competition. Bet you really wish you had Bugsnax right now, don’t you, Microsoft?
