343 Industries has announced that Halo Infinite, originally slated to launch this holiday season with the Xbox Series X, has been delayed. It will now be releasing in 2021. According to a tweet by studio head Chris Lee, this was to ensure the team “had adequate time to deliver a Halo game experience that meets our vision.”
Lee further stated that the delay was due to a number of development different challenges, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the development team has been working hard to solve these challenges, Lee said “It is not sustainable for the well-being of our team or the overall success of the game to ship it this holiday.” As such, he acknowledged that the news would be disappointing for many but said that the additional 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.”
Halo Infinite recently saw its gameplay debut at the Xbox Games Showcase and garnered some mixed reactions. 343 Industries later confirmed that it was an early build, that too running on PC that was “representative of the experience that players will have on Xbox Series X.” More information will be revealed in the coming months, including multiplayer that was confirmed to be free to play and run at 120 frames per second. We’ll see how the game’s overall status fares heading into the new year.