Microsoft recently started its Xbox E3 2018 press conference with a bang by officially unveiling Halo Infinite to the world. It is going to be the first mainline Halo title starring Master Chief since 2015’s Halo 5. It looks like the next installment of the Halo franchise might be launching differently compared to past iterations. The initial release of Halo Infinite may only contain the single-player experience, with the multiplayer part of the game releasing quite a bit later.
Halo Infinite E3 2018: Single-player Comes First
According to an article on Thurrott, games journalist Brad Sams claims that Halo Infinite will initially be released as a single-player only game, based on “reliable insider information” from Microsoft. The earliest projection for the game’s release is late 2019, considering that the game will be running on a brand new engine dubbed SlipSpace. However, the multiplayer part of the game will purportedly release in 2020, which is a year later.
It is all completely plausible as developing a game based on a brand new engine takes more effort and resources. If 343 Industries were to release the single-player part of the game first, the developer could work out all the bugs and kinks before releasing the multiplayer.
Halo Infinite definitely looks out of this world when powered by the new SlipSpace engine. We still have no idea of whether the game will feature a spin-off story like Halo Reach, or continue from where we left off in Halo 5. It seems likely that it will turn out to be the latter, considering how anticipated and huge this game is set to become.
With the next Xbox console already confirmed to be in development, it remains to be seen if Halo Infinite will somehow coincide with its launch. For the very first time since the Xbox One’s launch in 2013, it looks like the company is in good hands and preparing for a brighter future.