Bad news, folks. 343 Industries has confirmed that Halo Infinite won't be offering a proper pre-install option for the campaign, which means we'll all seemingly have to wait until the official release time to start downloading it.
In response to a fan on Twitter, Halo Community Director Brian Jarrard confirmed the news:
There's maybe a chance that the files will go live at least a couple of hours early this Wednesday (we're just speculating), but otherwise we'll need to wait until 10am PST / 6pm GMT to commence downloading the campaign.
We've waited for Halo Infinite this long... we just might need to wait a little bit longer to begin playing it.
How long do you think it'll take you to download the campaign when it drops? Tell us down in the comments.
Comments 85
Well done Microsoft you useless numb nuts.
Currently no pre download for Xbox console Halo campaign, said to be roughly about 50gb ish.
Biggest release of the year and you couldn’t get that right Microsoft.
At this rate I won’t be playing until about Friday maybe Saturday.
I know it’s a silly thing moaning, but this should have been dealt with better with your trillions of dollars.
Wasn't there someone on the comments of the physical games swearing you could do this? Guess you can't believe everything you read on the internet.
@Dezzy70 deja vu!!!!
@Dezzy70 I think it's coming out early in the day, depending where you live, you might still be able to pre-load if you plan to play it that same night.
@PcTV don't you go spreading FUD about the interwebs!!!!
Harrumph! Now I'll have to wait a bit to play it 😤 Good thing I planned ahead and got the whole day open 😉
Honestly that's not cool. Basically every other game gets pre-loaded why not Halo: infinite? Giant Day 1 patch basically being the whole game? But we'll live, and will quickly be forgotten.
Will the whole campaign be coming out tomorrow, or just parts of it?
@Krzzystuff
I found out about 10 minutes before this thread went up 😂
@themightyant
I shall never forget and shoot the first Banished scum I come across.
But not until Saturday now 😆
Bit of a shame, as I can't help but think the servers are gonna get hammered and it'll take even longer to download...
Good thing they announced Serious Sam 4 today so I've got something to play until Thursday 🤣
Not the end of the world but seems like a silly thing to fumble at the 11th hour. Hopefully we can at least boot up the first couple levels after it downloads a bit of the full file.
@MegaWatts
This is true, they could have rolled this out with pre download about a week ago and we would all be looking forward to 6pm UK time tomorrow.
I'm sorry but there is absolutely no excusing not having a pre-load available for a new game in this day and age.
Very poor form
@PcTV Its release is 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm GMT, etc. (simultaneous launch) meaning for most people Infinite will launch during work/school or during the evening. So because of no preload, a lot of people won't get to actually play the game until Thursday evening at the earliest.
@Grumblevolcano
UK 6pm, I won’t be playing until about Saturday with my slow internet.
Will have stay away from spoilers on the internet.
Microsoft you should have done better than this and treated us better than this.
Yeah I noticed this when I kept trying to access the campaign for pre-loading and it kept just taking me to my multiplayer install.
Who cares, is just 28gb for the whole campaign, is not like you will downloading that for hours
So my Halo Infinite (campaign) download from Gamepass was pointless? I’ve not even clicked on the thumbnail so idk. I’m busy tomorrow so can download this while I’m out but this is pretty poo for most people.
First world problems. Back to max payne 3 and generation zero, til install is done.
Say what you will about Sony but there's never been a problem with pre-downloading their games. Lets me honest this is pretty terrible and there's no reasons they couldn't allow it, its the biggest and most hyped Xbox game in years and we can't even play on release time. 343 really are shooting themselves in the foot with this game, at least the campaign is worth the wait i guess.
I have worked it out, the reason for this.
It’s 343 having the last laugh after we got their butts spanked a year ago after that demo.
No problem, I can wait.
I assume that it may be a large day one patch that is the reason, so instead of making users download a large file and then download almost the whole thing again and pissing them off I think this is a good thing.
@Zucaritas
I found a good source and I think it all totals about 64gb ish. I think that is campaign and may include multiplayer. It is definitely not 28gb we will all be downloading tomorrow.
Welp here's hoping the servers can handle it! Strange omission in this day and age but oh well. Not a huge deal.
Actually you can preload the campaign, but only if you can get 10 kills with the ravager in PvP 😆
@Dezzy70 If this is 343i trying to have a laugh at the fans, it's going to backfire. This will be another bulletpoint for the "list of reasons to prove that 343i are incompetent".
Might just stay off xbox tomorrow since the servers will most likely be dead.
@Dezzy70 Microsoft Store shows the multiplayer file size increased to 70.37GB.
https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/halo-infinite/9PP5G1F0C2B6/0010
Have I missed something here? I downloaded it through GamePass a few days ago. It’s on my hard drive now with a footprint of 25.9gb admittedly I thought it was a bit small, but if that’s not the actual game what is it?
@Nightcrawler71 Multiplayer
@Zucaritas there are multiple different versions , Xbox one , Xbox series & pc & the final file size with day one update could change
@Grumblevolcano no i didn’t download the MP. I simply went to “games coming soon” on the store, found Halo Infinite campaign - base game and it gave me the option (through GP) of downloading it.
@Richnj
I think we know they are incompetent to a certain point be it management or employees.
I’m looking forward to the game, but after 6 years it could have been so much more and a complete game and smashed the review scores.
The fact we only have one outside environment bio with no real environmental effects be it weather or winds or interaction, begs the question what have they been doing for 6 whole years a team of that size.
Not baiting but you only have to look at HZDFW in February 2022 or FH5 now on series x to see what a great developer can do.
@Nightcrawler71 Halo Infinite (Campaign) contains the multiplayer and a DLC file for the campaign (the multiplayer is the base game). The DLC file is 0 bytes at the moment.
@Grumblevolcano
Might be playing next Monday at this rate then if the file size gets any bigger 😆
@Nightcrawler71 I was confused by this also. If I knew it wasn’t the actual campaign I wouldn’t have downloaded it. The whole things strange.
@Dezzy70 how is your internet so bad? I have to use wireless and my speed isn’t great this will take a couple - a few hours to download. Days!? Oh man.
@Fenbops
It’s 6mb/sec and this is all I can get where I live.
Trust me I would pay for faster but that is the only option I currently have and I live in a built area.
Dam slow roll out of fibre that is the issue.
If it’s a 50 Gb file should take about 15/20 minutes to download as long as their server isn’t getting bombarded (which it will be). Thankfully there is a plethora of other amazing games to play while I wait (I am immersed in Generation Zero right now).
@Dezzy70 My inclination is that it's the management. I'm sure the grunts work hard and tirelessly.
It would take every grunt to be bad for them to screw up development. But it only takes a handful of managers (or one studio head) to do the same amount of damage.
In fairness, MS' insistence that Halo remain the flagship AAA franchise doesn't help. There's so much pressure to develop and retool old gameplay mechanics in to something that is both old and new is guaranteed disaster. Horizon is just all new to itself and it doesn't have to worry about being the mascot for the publisher. This is why something like Pyschonauts 2 can be so good. Smaller budget, smaller team, smaller worries, better game. Downscaling the budget and development, and expectations of Halo should have happened when 343i took over.
@Dezzy70 holy ***** that is bad 🤣 I’m in the UK also and I’d like to say I’m surprised but I’m not, our speeds for the most part are hot garbage compared to the rest of the world.
The good news just keeps coming.
@Fenbops
It’s good old England at the moment I’m afraid.
A bit of a rip of country, especially now pay more get less, most places you go or things you buy.
I've said on numerous occasions that most 343i are nothing but disorganized group of ignorant, incompetent bunch that not respect their true fans and customers.
@MegaWatts Yep I said that same thing yesterday. But a fellow community member counter it with the multiplayer is up and servers are OK.
I kinda agree with that take somewhat. But most likely there are campaign and separate multiplayer servers.
Guess I'll just play it in the cloud for the first while. Then download over night.
After all me moaning thought I must say Xbox at the moment are the best of bunch at the minute.
Nintendo charge lots for remakes and a poor online service that has added expansion costs to play very old games.
Sony are money grabbing at any possible chance they get, most recently with the uncharted collection, see Push Square.
Xbox are being generally cool and do the odd silly thing like this pre download of Halo the biggest game of the year, I think just like to make us annoyed and realise that they still in charge. Daft really as they are on a very very good customer relationship roll at the moment with consoles selling well.
Lol this is hilarious and annoying at the same time. 343 is definitely the problem child in all of Xbox Game Studios.
Does anybody else have the impression that 343 wasn't even close to ready to release this thing, 1 year wasn't nearly enough extra time, and much of that time went into perfecting the skinner box multiplayer, so they're just cobbling it together at the 11th our as it flies out the door?
@Dezzy70 You have reminded me that the US truly is just a mirror image of UK's screwed up past 300 years......
@Richnj The problem is they don't have a mascot franchise otherwise. Forza really is but it's hard for cars to be a mascot. I think after this Bethesda's big games and Fable probably will replace Halo as a mascot. What else can they really do with a series that can't be anything but an '00's shooter?
@NEStalgia yeah it does feel like that, I think they needed another 6 months. June 2022 would have been better time frame. It would have met all features ready.
I'm on just under 1GB/s download here in the UK, so it's not the end of the world, but you know full well the servers will get hammered come 6PM.
Glad I got a 200mbps internet connection but honestly don’t even think that’ll be enough as the servers will be absolutely rammed with people downloading it.
I’m happy to wait until Thursday to play
@NEStalgia
At least in the USA you seem to get better and more value for things etc.
I think Xbox had three sort of main game mascots.
Halo, Forza and gears of war. They were the showboat games.
Correct a car game is hard to be a mascot.
Halo is probably past it.
Gears of war is around but not strong enough.
During the Xbox one time they should have created another or more, now it is up to this new generation to do that. Similar to what the PS4 did for some of Sonys mascots old and new.
Microsoft between the Windows 11 launch and this, I don't know which is worse. It seems the closer the game gets to releasing the less I'm interested. With no pre-load, not going to play it tomorrow, may not install it.
@iplaygamesnstuff
I know what you mean, perhaps they need to start firing some people and get the right people in for the job.
Since Covid I think those that were bad at their job have got worse but are getting away with it, with working from home etc and not being managed enough or measured performance wise.
Seems to be what I’m seeing at work anyway.
@Dezzy70 If the support for Halo Infinite is anything like Forza Horizon 5, you'll probably have to wait until after the holidays for any fixes anyways. I've been so frustrated lately by uncomplete or buggy games that are supposed to be AAA titles. I guess it may be another year before they get things right.
Weird....not that I'm bothered ...I've still got Vanguard Campaign and Guardians of the galaxy I'm playing ....and I just received far cry 6 today aswell lol...so much to play..will finish them 2 then probably dedicate myself to halo before far cry
@iplaygamesnstuff
Unfortunately it is the game world we live in at the moment.
Nintendo are not so bad, if and when they release some new in house studio AAA games. not that buggy etc, but then again they are not to complex overall compared to an Xbox or PS5 AAA game.
@StylesT
Playing far cry 6 now, it is a massive open world game. Enjoying it as well.
It's a joke, right?
@iplaygamesnstuff
Horizon 5 doesn't even properly support my steering wheel, the Logitech G923. Meanwhile Forza Motorsport 6 does. Half the buttons like right stick, left stick and the rotary knob don't work. Nor does the built in tachometer.
On top of that I constantly have to quit out because the game stops transmitting the force feedback data.
Halo Infinite literally became from my most anticipated game of the year to the literal biggest disappoint game of 2021, so much problems with the realese of this game, that is shameful...
@NEStalgia Absolutely. With all the cut feature they're hoping to add later and all the bugs, it needed atleast another year, easily.
What is a huge slap in the face though: could you imagine what we would have gotten if people hadn't complained about the E3 trailer and they went ahead and released last year?
@InterceptorAlpha
It’s been a strange journey for good old Halo Infinite.
Not sure where it all went wrong for the game and at what stage of development etc. But I would love to know who is responsible and get to the bottom of it, the planning the meetings the decisions etc.
Will be interesting to see how both
Dying light 2 and Elden Ring
Fair next year in terms of ready for release and buggy or not and updates needed.
@InterceptorAlpha They denied that they rebooted development, but it's really the only feasible explanation. They had 6 years. And another year later it's clear they're nowhere near ready. They must have scrapped half the game and started a year ago like it was basically a new game minus the engine work, and a year was never enough time for a new game.
@Dezzy70 Even Nintendo only releases half a game and adds the rest months later....
@Hurblyburbly @blinx01 Seriously, I can imagine the game downloading at like 5mb/s with the way the servers will be killed. This game needed preload.
I was going to play Halo on launch day, but in all likelihood, tomorrow is "Playstation Wednesday!" I'm sure even FH5 won't be working right with the online features while that's going on and "some services showing limited availability" will light up the status page.
@NEStalgia
Not always true of Nintendo. In the great early switch days BOTW and Mario Odyssey were top notch for me. Though the BOTW DLC did bring exploration together a lot more and I could of done with that from the beginning of the game.
@Dezzy70 yeah that was the old Nintendo still, not the new ea Nintendo
@PhhhCough more of a 3rd world problem. Here in the 1st world I will have it installed within an hour, if that. 😉
@NEStalgia
True, those early switch year or two were magical gaming for me and some of the best of Nintendo.
Not sure what’s happened to them the last 2 years though.
Won't take me long at all. It's not a big inconvenience but I do think 343 is either clueless about the expectations of gamers today or they were afraid of datamining getting in front of them. Hard to say but I highly doubt they did this because of a day one patch or anything like that.
@Dezzy70 The suits took over, indie money filled the coffers and the platform started selling itself. It always happens that way... Plus Miyamoto basically leaving games to work on amusement parks hasn't helped.
So a game that has an 86 average on Metacritic with plenty of 9 reviews is “nowhere near ready” and a “huge disappointment” according to some here. Grow up. I’ll play the game a few hours later and enjoy the crap out of it.
Are they trying to avoid everyone cramming the servers at once?
@John117 Don't let cryosleep chamber door hit you on the way out of the Pillar of Autumn, brother. Thanks for the gratuitous "I quit" post. Buh bye.
@NEStalgia
Same mate. I bought resident evil village on sale last week on my PS5 so enjoying playing that.
Along with Infinite multiplayer I’m happy to wait the extra day to play the campaign.
Got a 400mb/s connection so should be good, but like people say here servers gonna get hit hard, so we'll see if we get to download it from the get go and what speeds we're gonna get. just under 11 hours to go.
Ahah. My poor little 10mb/s connection will take a year to download that xD
Ok, maybe not a year. But the all damn night, that's for sure. Guess I'll try it on friday, then.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo
@awp69 some people aren't happy unless they're complaining. Enjoy the game.
@iplaygamesnstuff This is why I have my "wait a year" policy. I was always an early adopter prior to the 7th gen. I was super pumped up for Destiny 1 and MCC, and preordered both as soon as I could. I paid £90 for the deluxe edition of Destiny, and it came out broken, and clearly retooled from what it was meant to be. Then they reduced what DLC was coming in the expansion pass and expected us to buy seperate expansions. And £60 MCC was completely and utterly broken, and 343i refused to acknowledge the extent of the problems, offered a quick apology and ODST, and acted like it was fine. £150 for products that were totally sold on lies. And of course, none of this was reflected in the reviews (one of the reasons I don't put faith in reviews anymore).
And the last 7 years have only strengthened my belief that (nearly) no game is worth picking up in the first year.
@awp69 No one wants you to not enjoy it. We all hope you do. But the game has had 6 years dev (4 of which were covid free), and it is releasing without co-op, or split screen, or forge, so it's hard to dismiss people when they say the game wasn't ready. Especially with co-op and split screen, since after Halo 5, 343i had to make a promise about their commitment to the features.
Just noticed this so called global release is bull. We have to wait till 6pm in UK, what so that the Americans can wake up? Thats not global launch thats a joke.
Luckily, with its size it’s not the end of the world.
@Dezzy70 looks like I was right, don't know where you took the 60gb size but the game is 36gb in series S, the update was 20gb for the S and 27 for the X
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