343 Industries Confronts Rumors Of Further Halo Infinite Delays And Xbox One Support
The second rumor in particular was quite interesting, given that Microsoft has taken the firm stance that it would provide cross-generational support for new games for at least the new few years, meaning that there would be no Xbox Series X exclusives. Thankfully, 343 Industries is confirming that both of those rumors are false, or as Halo Community Manager John Junyszek called them, “fake leaks”.
Hey Eric - we're seeing lots of fake "leaks" out there, so please don't believe everything you read. There are no plans to change our 2021 release or the devices and platforms we'll be supporting. We're building Halo Infinite to be the best it can be on each device/platform 👊
— John Junyszek (@Unyshek) August 25, 2020
While there is a bit of wiggle room in there on release timing with Junyszek saying that there “are no plans to change” its 2021 release date, he bluntly crushes the speculation that Xbox One support may be dropped.
Halo Infinite was originally supposed to launch in November alongside the next-generation Xbox Series X game console. However, that expected launch was blown out of the water after 343 Industries released the first gameplay trailer for Halo Infinite. Gamers were quick to mock the graphics displayed in the footage, which definitely did not look anywhere close to being next-gen. Things got so bad that even Domino’s Pizza jumped on the bandwagon to mock Halo Infinite – that had to be quite deflating for the developers.
343 Industries addressed that initial criticism in a developer update writing, writing:
The second theme being discussed involves visual fidelity. Negative feedback in this area includes comments around characters and objects appearing flat, simplistic and plastic-like, lighting feeling dull and flat, and object pop-in. We’ve read your comments, we’ve seen the homemade examples of retouched content, and yes we’ve heard the Digital Foundry assessments. In many ways we are in agreement here – we do have work to do to address some of these areas and raise the level of fidelity and overall presentation for the final game.
A few weeks after that update, 343 Industries announced that it would be delaying Halo Infinite until 2021, which would give it “the extra 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.” With that being said, things still look to be on track for a 2021 release, barring any other unforeseen hiccups.
