Halo Infinite launches on December 8

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Halo Infinite, the next game in the long-running Halo franchise is launching on December 8. The date was confirmed during the opening of Gamescom 2021 when they revealed a new cinematic trailer.

It’s a long time coming as Infinite was originally planned for a 2020 release as a launch title for the Xbox Series X|S but decided to delay the game as they experienced a few challenges due to the ongoing pandemic.

The official release date comes a week after developer 343 industries confirmed that Halo Infinite will not launch with campaign co-op and Forge as they are simply “just not ready” , says Joseph Staten, head of creative on the game in a development video. Instead of releasing these features in December, they decided to work on it a bit more and is now part of the game’s seasonal roadmap for 2022.

Here’s a quick rundown of the game’s features provided by Microsoft:

  • Campaign – When all hope is lost and humanity’s fate hangs in the balance, the Master Chief is ready to confront the most ruthless foe he’s ever faced. Begin anew and step inside the armor of humanity’s greatest hero to experience an epic adventure and finally explore the scale of the Halo ring itself.

  • Multiplayer – Halo‘s celebrated multiplayer returns! More information coming later this year (requires Xbox Live Gold on console, membership sold separately).

  • Forge – Halo‘s epic content creation tool is back and more powerful than ever. More information coming later this year.

  • Cross-Generation Gaming – Halo Infinite provides an amazing experience across the Xbox One and newer family of consoles as well as PC. And, on Xbox Series X as well as supported PCs, enjoy enhanced features like up to 4k resolution at 60FPS in campaign and greatly reduced load times creating seamless gameplay that usher in the next generation of gaming.

It’s a bummer for fans as it would be great to experience Master Chief’s latest adventure with a full stack of friends. But we have Infinite’s campaign and multiplayer to keep us busy. Forge is a fan-favorite as it allows players to customize and share Halo maps within the community. 

Microsoft also revealed a Halo Infinite Limited Edition bundle for the Xbox Series X, which features a cool console design that matches  with the Xbox controller.