343 Industries finally debuted campaign gameplay for Halo Infinite while promising closer look at multiplayer in the future. Though it retains the same feel and mood of the Halo series, it’s pretty obvious that the next entry is a fresh start for the franchise. Studio head Chris Lee echoed this sentimenet when speaking to IGN and said it was the “start of our platform for the future.”
“We want Infinite to grow over time, versus going to those numbered titles and having all that segmentation that we had before. It’s really about creating Halo Infinite as the start of the next ten years for Halo and then building that as we go with our fans and community.” So don’t expect Halo Infinite 2 at some point in the future. Of course, that doesn’t mean Halo is going in the live-service direction with this move.
While new stories will be told, there will also be updates to the visuals over time like a free update that adds ray-tracing post launch. It’s too early to say whether Master Chief will venture to other planets but we can likely expect new regions on this Halo ring. And of course, multiplayer should see new modes and maps over time though we’ll have to wait for more details from 343 Industries on this.
Halo Infinite is currently slated to release this holiday season. It’s coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC along with launching for Xbox Game Pass. Stay tuned for more in the meantime.