Halo Infinite is quite probably the Xbox One exclusive that has gotten people’s tongues wagging more than anything else. It was announced at this year’s E3 conference by Microsoft, but details have been a little thin on the ground since. Despite this, we do know something about 343 Industries’ upcoming sequel, and plenty of rumors have circulated regarding the potential Halo Infinite story, release date, gameplay, and more. Everything is covered in our Halo Infinite guide for Xbox One.
Halo Infinite Release Date
We highly doubt that the Halo Infinite release date will be at the end of 2018. Microsoft has shown too little of the game, and if it were to release by the end of the year, they would have said by now, surely? Based on the time taken for previous Halo games to release after the initial announcements, we’d point to Halo Infinite releasing in the latter half of 2019 at the earliest.
Halo 4 took just over a year to release after its initial announcement. Halo 5, however, released in October 2015 after originally being teased during E3 2013. While a late 2019 release seems somewhat likely, don’t be surprised if Halo Infinite releases in 2020. Other Xbox games announced at this year’s E3 such as Gears of War 5 got confirmed 2019 release dates, which does suggest that Halo Infinite was in the early stages of development just a few months ago.
Halo Infinite Story
Since E3, 343 Industries has come out and explained that Halo Infinite is a direct sequel to Halo 5. Essentially, Infinite is Halo 6. During a Mixer broadcast, Jeff Easterling (Halo Infinite lead writer) explained that “it is Halo 6.” “You should just consider it as Halo 6. Don’t think of it as a weird prequel kind of thing. It’s the next story. It’s the next chapter in what is going on.” It will pick up where Halo 5 left off. The issue here, however, is that Halo 5 had an open ending.
We can at least be sure that it will continue the story of Master Chief. Story details other than this are unknown, but we can make some educated guesses here. The teaser trailer shown at E3 was full of little details. We know that it will at least feature a Ring World. Thanks to a detailed trailer dissection by WindowsCentral, we know that the Ring World Master Chief and his compatriots appear to be stranded on is Zeta Halo, or Installation 07. There is wildlife in the trailer, something which has been mentioned in two Halo novels. The deer in the trailer? They were found on Zeta Halo in Halo Hunters in the Dark.
There are other signs pointing towards Zeta Halo, too. Ancient structures appear with written language on them, suggesting there were humans at some stage. The series lore tells us that Zeta Halo once had humans living there during the time of the Forerunners, which is what Halo 4 and 5 are all about. Perhaps Halo Infinite will round off the Forerunners trilogy? Will we see Master Chief team up with a new AI to take down the Flood on Zeta Halo? It could be likely.
New Halo Infinite Gameplay
As Halo Infinite is a direct sequel to Halo 5, we can expect it to share very similar gameplay. It wouldn’t be right if 343 suddenly decided to move away from the series’ first-person shooter roots now, would it? You can be safe in the knowledge that there will most likely be your usual array of Halo modes. The single-player and online multiplayer will be back for sure, unless 343 go in a wild direction. After all, the lead multiplayer designer of Halo 5 left 343 Industries earlier this year.
There is always the potential that 343 will bring in online multiplayer options akin to the battle royale games that are so popular today. In some great news, however, 343 announced last year that every Halo game after 5 will feature local split-screen multiplayer. “We all have great memories of past Halo split-screen multiplayer matches. [Halo] will… always have split-screen in going forward.” There’s not any word on the four-player online story co-op making a return, however.
Halo Infinite Microtransactions
Whether you like them or not, Halo Infinite microtransactions are on the way. Microsoft has explained that Halo Infinite will be a AAA game as a service title. We don’t know exactly what form these microtransactions will take, but we can imagine being able to buy decals for weapons and armor, new armor designs, and maybe even new characters to play as. As long as it doesn’t affect the gameplay, the community should remain relatively happy.
Hopefully, we’ll learn more about Halo Infinite soon, as Microsoft has announced that it is putting on its own show in November. The Xbox X018 Conference is due to take place between November 10-11, 2018. We’ll let you know more as soon as we get the information.
