Halo Infinite Postponed to 2021, Series X coming in November

Today two big pieces of news coming out of Microsoft's Xbox today. Xbox Series X's release window has been narrowed from Holiday 2020 to November 2020. This may not be the news fans want. With release so close, it is long past time we know cost and date. Even if I excused the exact date commitment because of the uniqueness of our post-COVID world, we should have a price already. Xbox and Sony are in a elaborate game of chicken on the price, but this is still a small piece of news of this release window. It came with some unfortunate news; however, Halo Infinite, what was supposed to be a major launch title for Series X, is DELAYED to 2021.

(Halo Infinite Gameplay Trailer)

While I will admit this causes me concern for the success of the launch of Xbox Series X; Xbox needs every weapon in its holster to compete with PS5 and losing Halo Infinite at launch is bad news for Microsoft. However, frankly, I am RELIEVED. I am relieved for two reasons. It was no secret that fans were disappointed with Halo Infinite's gameplay reveal, myself included. After 5 years of no Halo, years of no news, expectations were high. Halo Infinite has been #1 on my Most Anticipated list twice now. However, Halo Infinite's reveal not only failed to live up to expectations, it somehow managed to look worse than 5 year old Halo's that launched TWO generations ago. I was blown away at how unfinished and not ready it looked. I'm sad Xbox waited until the backlash to realize this game needed a delay, as if they thought they could sneak by with an unfinished game. I truly hope 343 takes their time to make Halo Infinite polished and beautiful as it should be. I don't care if it is Holiday 2021, it needs to be good. The second reason I am relieved is because Holiday 2020 is becoming the most over-saturated game release window in recent history. There are just frankly too many high profile games coming out that the competition will hurt sales for some games. We are going to experience a super-cycle thanks to COVID delays and Next-Gen launches.

Check out this trailer for Xbox Series X.