Halo Infinite

Halo Infinite is an upcoming first-person shooter game developed by 343 Industries and published by Xbox Game Studios for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The sixth main entry of the Halo series, and the fourteenth Halo game overall, it picks up the story of the Master Chief, following Halo 5: Guardians.

Halo Infinite was planned to release with the Xbox Series X/S on November 10, 2020, but was delayed in August 2020. It is now planned to be released in late 2021.

Development

Halo Infinite is being developed by 343 Industries with assistance from Skybox Labs, Sperasoft and Certain Affinity. It will utilize the new Slipspace Engine. The story entered planning stages in 2015 and was referred to as Halo 6 at the time. An announcement trailer was released on June 10, 2018. The developer said that all of the scenes in the Halo Infinite trailer were running in the engine. Halo Infinite will feature split-screen again, in response to the backlash of its removal in the previous game. It was also planned to have a beta prior to its release, described as an insider flight program.

Although initially implicated to be exclusive to the Xbox Series X/S, development director Frank O'Connor stated in August 2019 that Infinite was being developed for Xbox One. He said they were "building it so it plays and looks fantastic" on the platform, but would have enhancements when played on Xbox Series X/S.

On July 31, 2020, it was announced that the game's multiplayer portion would be released as a free-to-play game.

On August 27, 2020, 343 Industries announced that Joseph Staten, the former lead writer and cinematic director of the Halo series at Bungie, had joined as Campaign Project Lead for Halo Infinite. On October 28, 2020, it was reported by Bloomberg News that director Chris Lee had departed the project.

On December 5, 2020, Bruce Thomas, the mocap actor for Master Chief in Halo Infinite, stated in an interview that "it [Halo Infinite] is in the can, and ready to go for next spring." Soon after, on December 8, 343 Industries disclosed in a blog post that Halo Infinite will be released in late 2021.

Synopsis

According to Microsoft, Master Chief returns in Halo Infinite, the third chapter of the "Reclaimer Saga", with "his greatest adventure yet to save humanity". The storyline of Halo Infinite will be "much more human", with the Master Chief playing a more central role than in Halo 5: Guardians.

The E3 2018 trailer indicated that the story will be set on a Halo ring that has mysteriously suffered damage and also showcased the design of Master Chief's MJOLNIR armor to return to the design seen in Halo 2 and Halo 3. The Banished, a violent mercenary group that splintered off of the former Covenant alien alliance first seen in Halo Wars 2, appear as enemies.