Cast your mind back to August, and you'll undoubtedly remember when 343 Industries dropped the bombshell that Halo Infinite would no longer be releasing alongside the Xbox Series X, and instead would be delayed until 2021 "to ensure the team has adequate time to deliver a Halo game experience that meets our vision.
At the time, it felt like the lowest point in a year that was otherwise full of excitement in the lead up to the release of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, but now that the consoles have arrived and we've had a few months to process the news, the decision seems wiser than ever - especially given the backlash surrounding Cyberpunk 2077.
CD Projekt Red's ambitious and highly-anticipated new game was clearly released earlier than it should have been, and has therefore attracted a large amount of negative press, particularly in regards to its last-gen performance. And who knows? That could have been the fate of Halo Infinite had it launched as planned this past November.
It's been well documented how poorly the original Xbox One launch was handled back in 2013, and Microsoft couldn't afford to make the same mistakes again with the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Ultimately, any negative press surrounding Halo Infinite would have been a massive blow to the brand at launch.
Here's what Xbox boss Phil Spencer had to say about the decision back in August:
"We're disappointed, we know it was something people were looking forward to this year, but we're also incredibly committed to deliver a great game and I think that's the most important thing."
“I’ll apologise to the fans, because I never like to set up expectations and then not hit them, but I also believe that we’re making the right decision in the long run, for both Xbox and Halo and our customers.”
Looking back now, the collective decision of 343 Industries and Phil Spencer's team - as difficult as it must have been to make - certainly appears to have been a sensible one, and while Cyberpunk 2077 will likely recover over time, we're hopeful the extra year will allow Halo Infinite to really fly out of the gate when it finally launches next Fall.
How do you feel about Halo Infinite's delay after the Cyberpunk 2077 fiasco? Tell us in the comments.
Comments 26
Release the game when it's ready and not a moment sooner.
Even before Cyberpunk I've always been for games being delayed until they are ready. In fact none of them should be giving us release dates until its close to being finished in the first place.
Funny thing is Halo looked like it was perfectly playable in that demo but they made absolutely the right call
I'm so happy they delayed it a whole year. Infinite could be 343's last chance after how poorly MCC launched and Halo 5's ( and to a lesser extent 4's) poor reception. CDPR can recover from this, 343 probably couldn't.
Correct this is 343 chance with Halo now.
They need to score big and hit a home run with Infinite. I really hope they do as by this time next year we probably all could do with AAAA Halo game.
@LX_FENIX MMC's launch was awful - multiplayer was still unplayable a year after launch. After trying for hours and hours, I think I only managed to get in 4 or 5 games.
Halo 5's multiplayer is still my personal favourite. Never bothered with the campaign.
A delayed game is always better than a rushed game, and the cyberpunk disaster emphasizes this more than ever. I really hope the developers of 343 use this time well to make a polished and true next-gen experience halo! I love my series X, mostly because of the drastically reduced load times, but I have yet to play a game that really showcases next-gen capabilities. I hope halo can be that game.
I think if they released Infinite when they originally wanted it still wouldn’t be the ***** show that cyberpunk is. I’m glad it’s getting more time though, Craig needs to be looking at his best when he makes his debut.
Hell yeah for sure!
What annoys me is the people who say AFTER the game is released they should of delayed it and only release it when it's ready because half the time these are the same people who cry and complain and criticize when games get delayed
P. S I agree with only release games when ready no matter how long they take
343 must feel so good right now
Hood: 343, you mind telling me what you’re doing with infinite?
343: Sir, finishing the job.
@sikthvash i wasn't there for the MCC multiplayer fiasco but i remember the backlash against it. I actually liked a lot about Halo 5's campaign, but it had a lot of issues and just couldn't live up to the standard set by Halo 4.
I'm not worried about performance issues with Halo Infinite. However, what I am concerned about is the evolution of the franchise in general. Halo 1-4 and Reach (ODST as well) are some of my all time favorite games, but the gameplay has become stagnant and boring.
343 tried going the Call of Duty route and implemented the sprint feature, but that's not enough. The grappling hook in Infinite does seem cool but that cannot be all there is. With the open world approach I hope they provide decent side activities or something instead of traveling around and fighting the same enemies.
And frankly - there are other first person shooters that have simply done it better than Halo as of late. Doom/Eternal, Titanfall 2, etc. Those games brought the FPS genre back on the map in terms of originality and evolution. Halo Infinite needs to do something aside from story.
@BrilliantBill "The problem is that at the end of the day the nostalgia-obsessed fans only support a game that is Halo 1-3 Remake in anything but name."
You say this, but;
1) Halo CE, and 2 and 3 are very different games. Both in campaign and MP, CE plays very differently to Halo 2 and 3. Different health systems, dual wielding, boarding, very different vehicle physics. So it seems very disingenious to say that only a remake of CE-3 would be accepted given that the games you mentioned were anything but, and also...
2) from a campaign stand point, ODST and Reach did quite well. Reach obviously had issues in MP but a lot of fans stuck it out, and even picked up Halo 4 when it launched.
3) and should people really support games they don't enjoy just because it is an entry in to a franchise they did/do enjoy?. Halo 4 and 5 didn't die out because the nostaligia obsessed fans didn't support them. They died because neither game found its own audience. Nothing played like Halo 2 and 3 when they were around, so the people who enjoyed that gameplay had to stay with those games. You transplant lots of COD-esque gameplay features and mechanics and you will alienate the audience the originals had, and you won't win over the fans of those mechanics either because that gameplay is easily found elsewhere.
You can't force or expect someone to like something just because it has a familiar title.
"On the other hand you have a faction that thinks including anything that wasn't in the original trilogy is treason (sprint being an example)"
After Halo 5 launched, most people on Halo waypoint who were calling for things like sprint to be removed did so with clear arguments and examples. Like show how sprintless games (i.e. Doom) were faster paced and allowed the player to be more combat ready. But those same people also acknowledged that a sequel to the classic gameplay could beenfit from new additions and actually said that the thruster from Halo 5 would work fine within the existing gameplay framework.
It was hardly the fanatical picture you're painting.
"funnily they had a fantastic story in Halo 4"
Funnily, I think this is nostalgia based. Why was Halo 4 so fantastic?
Good point but lets not forget how Cyberpunk was delayed several times. Don't be surprised when Infinite needs a number of patches.
@JayJ i just heard that they didn't actually start working on Cyberpunk until 2018...just 2 years to get one of the most ambitious games ready seems like some massive mismanagement. Makes sense why they had all that crunch talk going around, they tried doing 4 years of work in just 2 and then Covid hit to even further delay them. Really surprised no one has been let go yet, there's something up with the management team and ur needs fixing
I hope they are giving themselves breathing room for the November Halo anniversary launch and it's not a stretch target. Seems they are in pretty good shape with the campaign being done and just getting dolled up.
@Krzzystuff They've been working on it a lot longer than that lol, maybe that's how far back playable builds go.
@JayJ there's been a lot of talk about them not actually getting into serious development until 2018 when the finished the last DLC for witcher 3? I know the games been in development for around 8 years but sounds like it wasn't full tilt till 2018.
This doesn't really make that much sense as an argument. There's no reason to assume Halo would've had the same sorts of issues. The gameplay and performance looked solid. Halo just had a graphics issue. That's obviously why they delayed it.
If they'd released it anyway, it probably would've been fine. It just wouldn't have been considered some great selling point for the Series X, like they want it to be.
Games should be finished when they arrive. But isn’t Halo 6 a different situation. It seems by and large the reaction wasn’t to it being buggy like C2077 but it just being a bit flat and bland all around.
@elpardo1984 A delay can not only fix bugs which I'm sure existed outside that part of the demo, but also improve graphics. And gamers put too much stock in graphics. They matter, but don't count for much when the game is a buggy mess with an abysmal frame rate. Infinite while looking bad, looked fun, and had a stable FPS.
@Thwomp_Stomper
I see what you did there.
Well done. 👍🏻 😉
Halo Infinite should release when it’s ready & not one day before. It’s really that simple.
@BrilliantBill "once a good and well done system exists it will eventually make its way to everything. Like how a well done cover-system first popularised by Gears is now the backbone of many games"
Then why doesn't Halo have a cover system?, why doesn't Halo have prone?, why doesn't Doom have rebounding health or sprint?. They don't have them because they don't fit the game.
It's a misconception that everything good is automatically good in everything.
A mechanic's worth is judged by its value to the genre and game you are making. Halo and COD have obviously popularised rebounding health and two weapon systems. Does that mean every game there after should absolutely follow that trend?. No of course not, and games like Overwatch and Fortnite have skewed those trends. Fortnite requires health pick ups, allows more than two weapons, has no gears like cover system, and has no dedicated grenade button. It's hard to take arguments that new things should always be included when the biggest game on the planet omitts many previous standards.
The more hemogeneous you make the shooter genre, the less variety you're going to get.
"The only game before H4 with a good story is Reach"
I mean...
"A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." - Shigeru Miyamoto
Probably not 100% true in the day of patches, but look at Cyberpunk 2077. The games reputation is ruined. Doesn't matter if it's fixed by March, the sour taste in gamers mouths will be forever there now.
At least with Halo Infinite, they took the hit of no launch day exclusive, which was a huge loss, but now during Fall 2021, we could have a great showcase of a game that will sell systems when they are freely available compared to now when they are sold out regardless of games available.
@KelticDevil it felt right 😂
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