[UPDATE: 343 Industries has directly denied claims of Halo Infinite's delay or changes in platform plans, with 343 Community Manager Jon Junyszek stating:
"There are no plans to change our 2021 release or the devices and platforms we'll be ing. We're building Halo Infinite to be the best it can be on each device/platform."
The original story continues below.]
One Microsoft insider claims that given the world Craig The Brute, but it's obviously not the type of showcase anyone would want for a key title in a console launch.
'Two weeks after the reveal, due to and the desire to not implement insane levels of crunch, 343 Industries announced that the game was going to be delayed into 2021. Microsoft had to then reaffirm that their console was coming out in November of this year, with or without a first-party launch lineup. Rumors then circulated that alternate plans involved splitting Halo Infinite's campaign and multiplayer into multiple releases in order to get it out the door. There was also talk of the developer being distracted by Halo's ongoing TV projects, although the developer came out and denied that allegation.
This week, more rumors have come out, painting Halo Infinite's development in an even worse light. Microsoft insider sponger posted on ResetEra (as shared by Twitter TWTHEREDDRAGON) that the current version of Halo Infinite is having serious issues running on Xbox One S, which would be required for its current release strategy. Allegedly, the game is running at "lower than 900p" and having issue loading assets into levels on the current-gen console. These issues would be on top of any seen in the current demo, which was running on PC with specs equivalent to an Xbox Series X. Fixing these issues could mean that Halo Infinite drops Xbox One and/or delays into early 2022.
When Microsoft first announced that their next-gen titles would Xbox One for several years, many worried about a scenario that seems to be playing out in real-time. Because the game is designed to run with console efficiency on such a wide range of hardware, the developers have seemingly run into a wide range of problems that are holding the game back. Instead of being a strong start to the new generation of Xbox, Halo Infinite is a showcase for a failed experiment in game design, leaving its desired platform in a tricky spot this holiday.
As with all rumors, players must take these statements with a grain of salt and hope for the best when it comes to Halo Infinite's development. With a collection of studios now making games for their new console, Microsoft is still poised for a major upgrade when it comes to first-party output, but many of those games are seemingly several years away. Halo Infinite was seemingly the only game built to bridge that hardware gap, and with it moving far into the future, the wait will only seem that much longer.
Halo Infinite will be available on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC in 2021.
Source: ResetEra, TWTHEREDDRAGON
