At yesterday’s Xbox Games Showcase, 343 Industries finally debuted the first gameplay footage of the upcoming Halo Infinite, showing chunk of open world gameplay from the upcoming first person shooter. Reception has been somewhat mixed, with many criticizing the game’s visual fidelity, but 343 Industries have said that they’ll be taking feedback into account as they look to improve aspects of the game both before and after launch.
That said, it’s looking like a beta for the game – which 343 Industries had said last year was indeed planned – might not be coming. Writing in an update on Halo Waypoint, Halo Infinite studio head Chris Lee said that due to the challenges the team has faced in 2020 during development – most likely referring to having to work from home due to COVID-19 – the plans that the developer had in mind for beta testing might not come to fruition.
“With Halo Infinite, we are also committed to building the game in partnership with our community but given the unprecedented challenges of this year, we’re not quite where we expected to be in terms of broader public flighting,” Lee wrote.
He added, however, that though public flighting is a little uncertain right now, 343 Industries are still looking at broader feedback as well as feedback from focus testing and play testing to ensure that they continue to work “very closely with the community.”
“While not the full program we had envisioned, we have been working very closely with the community on nearly every facet of the project,” Lee wrote. “From the earliest planning where we focused on broad feedback around art style and story to actual hands-on playtesting and focus feedback with confidential groups of community representatives over the past two years, Halo Infinite is being created in partnership with the community.
“The team is still working and assessing options for broader hands-on opportunities before launch and we’ll share an update when we can, but this process doesn’t stop with launch. In fact, in many ways, feedback and community flighting will be even more important after launch as we partner together to continually evolve and update the game into the future.”
Recently, details on the game’s open world and new weapons also emerged. 343 Industries have also said that Halo Infinite is going to be the conclusion of the Forerunner saga, but that it will also be the beginning of new stories, with the game being viewed as their platform for Halo content for the next 10 years.
Halo Infinite launches this Holiday for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC.