Halo Infinite - Secrecy For A Re-Reveal?

Games Halo Infinite
1

As we’re all painfully aware, 343 Industries and Microsoft have never been very open regarding Halo Infinite. While many of us expected this to come to an end after the gameplay reveal in July, we’ve seen very little of substance since then. With this, the delay, and Phil Spencer’s recent comments regarding holiday 2021 being the most important time for the success of the Xbox Series X, 343 Industries and Microsoft may want us to forget about the game for another year.

While opinions on Halo Infinite are currently mixed, one thing people tend to agree on is that the game needs to be the best it can be at release. This shared sentiment, combined with everything else previously stated, may lead to things remaining quiet until the game can be re-revealed closer to that holiday 2021 period. The Xbox Series X would then have a better, more polished Halo game with more excitement surrounding it releasing in time for Christmas.

This is just speculation, of course. It’s just something that you should keep in mind when discussing the content drought. As frustrating as it can be being left in the dark, there may be nothing that can be done to convince 343 Industries or Microsoft to give us more than breadcrumbs of information (weapon skin renders, emblems, and so on).

2

I, not being an American, am forgetful about some of your holiday terminology.
When you say Holiday 2021, you’re meaning essentially this time next year?

I had heard (which I can’t cite) that it was speculated for a release somewhere between March and July…

As much I am certain they’ll want to release this polished, they’ll also want to release as fast as humanly possible - within that polished target.
How much of their Series X projected sales were relying on Halo: Infinite?
I am sure that the investment into the development and manufacture of the Series X would have been substantial.
And I am also fairly sure that there would have been a whole subsequent series of budgeting for other titles already allotted for post-Series X launch, and that launch success partially hinging on Halo: Infinite.

Like you, I’m just speculating. I can’t help but look at this kind of release issue from the more annual fiscal perspective.

3

> 2533274851997977;2:
> I, not being an American, am forgetful about some of your holiday terminology.
> When you say Holiday 2021, you’re meaning essentially this time next year?
>
> I had heard (which I can’t cite) that it was speculated for a release somewhere between March and July…
>
> As much I am certain they’ll want to release this polished, they’ll also want to release as fast as humanly possible - within that polished target.
> How much of their Series X projected sales were relying on Halo: Infinite?
> I am sure that the investment into the development and manufacture of the Series X would have been substantial.
> And I am also fairly sure that there would have been a whole subsequent series of budgeting for other titles already allotted for post-Series X launch, and that launch success partially hinging on Halo: Infinite.
>
> Like you, I’m just speculating. I can’t help but look at this kind of release issue from the more annual fiscal perspective.

Yes. Between October to December.

The March/July rumor came from an art book’s release date on Amazon. People assumed that it’d release around the time of the game.

The Xbox Series X, according to Microsoft, is selling well without the need for Halo. And now that they own ZeniMax Media, they can make huge franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout exclusive (in terms of consoles) to Xbox. Game Pass is also growing in subscribers. They don’t really need Halo Infinite at the moment, and 343 Industries are probably on thin ice as well. Microsoft can afford the wait.

4

They absolutely have to do some sort of big re-reveal event at some point, we have no details and the game is still expected to release within the next 12 months. I am expecting a similar kind of reveal as to what CoD does every year, a good couple of hours showing off the multiplayer and new features of the game a month or so before launch.

> 2535425271455392;3:
> Yes. Between October to December.
>
> The March/July rumor came from an art book’s release date on Amazon. People assumed that it’d release around the time of the game.
>
> The Xbox Series X, according to Microsoft, is selling well without the need for Halo. And now that they own ZeniMax Media, they can make huge franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout exclusive (in terms of consoles) to Xbox. Game Pass is also growing in subscribers. They don’t really need Halo Infinite at the moment, and 343 Industries are probably on thin ice as well. Microsoft can afford the wait.

The Zenimax deal could be really interesting for Halo, there are so many iconic characters owned by Bethesda, Halo does not necessarily need to be Xbox’s mascot anymore. It could be Doom (Doom!), Elder Scrolls, Dishonored, Fallout, Wolfenstein; there are so many alternate mascots for Xbox. Are they going to continue pumping out Halo games anymore? What does this mean for the future of the franchise?

5

I agree with your speculation. I don’t think they’ll be launching the game in spring/summer, but do think they’ll reboot the marketing cycle for a Holiday 2021 launch.

There’s this sort of ever-optimistic feeling among the Halo community regarding Halo Infinite, despite the fact that feeling is entirely unwarranted, borderline delusional, and (not just unrealistic, but) “anti-realistic” (if you will). A lot of people are still holding out for a spring 2021 or summer 2021 release and I’m not here to say it can’t or won’t happen, but it’s just not being real about 343’s capabilities and where Infinite probably is.

A consistently brought up source is Klobrille, who’s currently talking up Infinite and it’s supposed status of being content complete; I just don’t buy it. Everyone has conveniently forgotten that Klobrille was the primary source of the reason behind the July Xbox event and Infinite reveal being regarded as bait-and-switch (if you trace all the hype back to the root, it was all the influencers sourcing Klobrille saying it was going to blow your mind and that Infinite had this graphical capability that would blow The Last of Us Part II out of the water and look truly next-gen). While Klobrille does have insider information, he definitely spins it (and sometimes in a big way) to keep the hype up for Microsoft.

And my point here isn’t that I’m 100% certain Infinite won’t launch in spring/summer, but that from what we’ve seen it’s heavily unrealistic and borderline delusional to believe so at this stage.

Another thing people keep saying is that this silence is just strategic planning by 343 to masterfully flank us with a launch and a wealth of new things to hype us up, and while I believe that it’s a strategic and intended silence, I don’t think it was necessarily “planned” (in the conventional sense) so much as “planned last minute to prevent further damage”. I believe the silence is strategic in the sense that they’ve done so to both hide Infinite and to (as you said) wait until 2021’s Holiday season to reboot their advertising cycle and launch the game. For some people it’s hard to believe that 343 isn’t really in control and just took a loss, but that really is the case- they seemingly don’t have a plan.

One might ask how I could make all these assertions about 343 when I don’t work there, but they’re missing the point: these are all speculations, theories, and beliefs drawn from making reason of 343’s actions and Infinite based on trends and patterns and such. Even if it’s the case that 343 does have a plan, that Klobrille is correct, and that there is a launch in spring/summer, it doesn’t appear that way right now, and that is a massive failure. Whatever the outcome of Infinite and the days ahead for it, it is massively losing as of current, and absolutely must be a success lest the dents and holes it has compounded on the Halo franchise be permanent and the whole ship sinks.

6

The tidbits we’ve got (eg. from Phil Spencer) is that the game is progressing well… and that some components may be more or less complete. But the opposite side of this coin is that we’ve seen pretty much nothing official.

But anyway… the Xbox Series X doesn’t need Halo at the moment. They can’t keep up with orders… and the demand will likely match supply well into Q1 of next year.

But at some stage they will need some system sellers going forward. Enhanced compatibility and spectacular load times will only take you so far.

My frustration is that the plans would be well set in stone by now. So why not fill us in? If it’s going to be 12 months away put us out of our misery now. 343 seem to think they are / have been open with their communication (when they recently denied that they had been turtling the community). FFS, give us something.

But when they do… 343 must control the narrative. Having the game hyped up as the graphical beacon of the next generation was a huge mis-step by Microsoft. Halo has never been about that stuff anyway. And a semi-open landscape supporting large scale battles is never going to compete with the next gen finesse of a scripted / corridor / on rails shooter. Especially on a brand new system with relatively immature developers tools. They need to sell the Halo package. This is why it looks and feels like Halo. This is the breadth and scope of the game; campaign, multiplayer, and forge. This is the 10 year plan…

7

They’re going to need a miracle to get me interested in this game again after the frankly terrible communication so far. The longer they wait before speaking aboyt the game, the less I care about Halo Infinite

8

> 2533274851997977;2:
> I, not being an American, am forgetful about some of your holiday terminology.
> When you say Holiday 2021, you’re meaning essentially this time next year?
>
> I had heard (which I can’t cite) that it was speculated for a release somewhere between March and July…
>
> As much I am certain they’ll want to release this polished, they’ll also want to release as fast as humanly possible - within that polished target.
> How much of their Series X projected sales were relying on Halo: Infinite?
> I am sure that the investment into the development and manufacture of the Series X would have been substantial.
> And I am also fairly sure that there would have been a whole subsequent series of budgeting for other titles already allotted for post-Series X launch, and that launch success partially hinging on Halo: Infinite.
>
> Like you, I’m just speculating. I can’t help but look at this kind of release issue from the more annual fiscal perspective.

The XBSX is actually

  1. Selling so well that demand is higher than supply (so is the ps5 for any console war plebs that want to fight whichever console is better)

  2. Reportedly, microsoft is saying the series X is also their fastest selling console on launch as well

  3. It’s launch wasn’t reliant on halo just like the last few Xboxes weren’t 🤷. Are people aware that most of the halos didn’t launch with a new Xbox? H3 was out after the 360 had been out, h4 too, h5 was out like 2 years after the XB1. Halo really didn’t sell with an Xbox unless you go back to halo 2

I don’t think it’s even relevant to say the Xbox needs halo anymore to actually sell well as halo hasn’t been what drives xbox sales for a long time now. Halo really isn’t the flagship system seller it once was, and there are so many games out today that an Xbox can be worth it without someone doing so for halo.

9

I read some comments which said that Halo Infinite will probably be released holiday 2021 which is weird for me considering that they have more or less confirmed that the game is done (campaign wise at least) and that they are currently working on the technical aspects of the game and has said that the game is more or less done which leads me to believe that they will release the game during the summer if they of course don’t want to piss off fans. (Not sure if I’m right about the game being more or less complete but that’s what I’ve heard from multiple halo content creators)

But let’s say they will release the game during holiday 2021 and I am wrongfully hopeful that we won’t haft to wait that long and what the holiday release would mean and lead to.
Upon learning that Halo Infinite has been delayed for a year a lot of fans would get furious and probably make the hard choice to leave the series once and for all, some would stay “loyal” and wait for the release but slowly and surely lose the hype almost completely with 343i being silence about the game. The content creators that thrive on Halo news will most probably haft to find some other game series which they are passionate about to make sure that they get paid.

If they choose to wait til holiday 2021 I’m pretty sure that things will end bad for them, I know I’m tired of waiting already and them telling us absolutely nothing does not help. I pray that I’m right cause with this year I could use the distraction.