Microsoft Discussed Releasing Halo Infinite in Pieces to Hit Xbox Series X Launch - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 07 February 2021 / 3,028 Views
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer appeared on the latest Animal Crossing-themed Twitch talk show, Animal Talking, and revealed he talked with 343 Industries boss Bonnie Ross and Xbox Game Studios chief Matt Boot about possibly releasing the game in separate pieces to meet the 2020 and Xbox Series X launch. However, in the end they decided not to do that and delayed the entire game until 2021.
"It just didn't feel, to all of us, like the Halo release that we would want," Spencer said.
"It is a bummer. I know it's disappointing to people, it's disappointing to us. We were looking forward to the alignment of Halo and Series X really as a seminal moment for Xbox, looking back to the launch of the original Xbox and Halo CE."
The reason they didn't wait to announce to delay the game was to be as "transparent" as possible.
"Let's get out the news out there and deal with it because people are making their own life decisions on consoles they're going to buy," Spencer said. "I guess somebody else might have waited but when we knew, [we] put the blog together and I said let's put it live.
"It won't be our favorite day but we'll get through it - I've had bad days before - we'll move through it and keep working on the things we love doing."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Glad they didn't.
Damn. They are going full damage control.
But but but... Chartz has been telling us MS cares nothing about quality and just want to poop out non stop GamePass filler
(Looks at Halo reveal.) Chartz is correct.
If Chartz was correct then MS would be pushing Halo out piece by piece instead of delaying :)
MS cares about money, the reception of the reveal was catastrophic. If it was a concern for quality they wouldn`t show the game and would have delayed before the backlash.
Catastrophic lol, nah. The Xbone reveal was catastrophic. And this could have been something they feel could be fixed by launch but now know it won’t thanks to COVID.
How is a delay for quality unrelated to money? If you make a better game you can sell more of that game. Sometimes you keyboard CEOs don’t think these posts through.
Yes sure they could have solved without COVID, in the same land that COVID started to be a problem this week right?
You are the one that doesnt seem to have thought it enough. Just look at the scores of the games MS have released this gen and come back with a straight face that they care that much about quality. They care about making money, having to meet a minimum quality standard is a need for that, it isnt the other way around.
Of course they care about making money, just like Sony and Nintendo. What game am I supposed to be looking at? They’ve had some great games this gen and some duds, again just like Sony and Nintendo.
Please tell us mr keyboard CEO how you make money rushing out a bad game LOL
You can answer to that look and SoT and several other titles... do you really want to try and compare the average quality of the titles MS released to Nintendo and Sony? I`m pretty sure you were on the thread were I put data for all the games the 3 released, and MS lagged far behind in Metacritic, GOTY and sales, but sure they are just like Nintendo.
But I guess I`ll take it as positive since it is the first time that you said Sony released great games this gen, even if it was indirectly recognition.
What about Sea of Thieves? Are you implying it was rushed out? And that means MS only cares about money? So then what does that mean for Infinite, since they could have very easily rushed it out for launch and had the biggest next gen launch game and just improved it over time (like SoT) but are instead delaying it?
Collect your thoughts and reset. Unfortunately this is a byproduct of having arguments based on garbage, you aren’t making any sense.
It is kinda impossible to make sense of your flip flop argument and pretense of neutrality.
Flip flop where? Please don't use terms if you don't understand what they mean.
A popular but unsubstantiated claim here recently is that MS doesn't care about the quality of games and just want to throw out a high quantity of stuff for GamePass. If this claim were true, you wouldn't see MS delaying this game. You wouldn't have Spencer talking to Gary Witta about how they could have released it piece by piece but opted not to. It's the exact opposite of the narrative. Hope that helps.
And you're more than welcome to believe in nonsense like how this delay is unrelated to COVID or quality. I mean hey some people think the Earth is flat. Help yourself, soldier. Last time I will reply, as you seem to have argued yourself in circles. I'll just watch you chase your tail.
They delayed the game because they would lose more money not doing it. But you`ll defense anything MS does and change the argument to fit it.
Still waiting for you to substantiate your claim that MS this gen games as Nintendo and Sony.
Games are already released in pieces these days. That's why you have to wait a year or more for the Complete or Ultimate edition.
Nah I disagree. I still feel like games are really long right now. I get more than my moneys worth from it. I end up spending @ $60 for me and my wife at the movies for 2 hours and some food. While these games are providing 20-25 hours of entertainment. Hell some of them go into 90 hours range. I hardly ever play DLC because by the time I finish a game I'm done I dont want to play it anymore. Even for games I absolutely loved I still skipped the DLC.
I was worried they would do a Destiny, i am glad they decided not to. Phil loves Destiny and Destiny is extremly successful but thats not the success want from a Halo title.
Destiny is a massive game with a long life and a large, devoted following. I'd love to see the next Halo game be in the same spot as Destiny a few years after launch.
I trust in Uncle Phil; he fixed a sicking ship, gave us a vision and overall really help the Xbox brand. Brought in some great new studios and the future is bright even with this misstep from 343 studio.
What vision? The vision to pull the wool over your eyes? Can't see for nothin' is what they want.
if they executed it well xbox fans might forgive em
Really fail to understand the defending of MS.
Worse than Don.
Whether or not you liked what came out of his mouth. Don was honest. That's why there was so much Xbox One backlash because he told it like it was.
And Phil Spencer basically carried Xbox to the same place Don was trying to, just chose to use pretty words and public was convinced. Better a lousy mouth than a good lier.
In pieces...? No. Just no. That's not even shoddy. It's just dumb given how lackluster the Halo reveal was. Just tell us that you don't know what you're doing, you screwed up, and you'll stop trying to fool the masses. That's transparency.
Did...you even read what he said? He couldn't have been more transparent by corporate standards.
Damn dude, you must really hate FF7 remake aswell.
They were going to pull a FF7 remake?? Or MGS Ground Zero to MGS5?? lol Honestly if Halo Infinite were in piece it'd probably be easier to pull since nobody knows anything about it. They can decide to cut the story wherever they feel like it and none of us would've known if there was actually more to it.
If the problem was some areas not being finished, or something like that sure slicing could work fine. But when the main complains are core to the game design, engine and graphics slicing wouldn't help at all.
Yep I agree.
And how would that work if the main problem was on the core? They would release only the audio? Then the maps? etc...
Well Multiplayer is something that I guess people would complain less about the graphical and perhaps where this game will shine. I would greenlit it since it will also be free, you can even have it as different name. Or as someone else mentioned, but it as beta.
That would be funny - release the sound track on XSX launch day. Release empty maps a couple months later.....
Phil maybe lies a lot but you gotta admit he chooses the right places to specify why the delays. I mean talking about halo on animal crossing themed show?
As an Xbox enthusiast. I respectfully disagree :) Love the guy, probably the best time for Xbox since the 360 era and he is doing an amazing job getting everything in place for next generation.
I agree. He should shut up for once.
Downvotes be damned, you are absolutely correct. Spencer has been in charge for, what, six years? In that time he has promised "next year" would be the best year for Xbox, and the fanboys believed. In these six years, what memorable exclusives have come out? Why has PS4 outsold Xbox 3:1? Why have they bought up tons of studios and done nothing with them? I still people give excuses to why they haven't done anything, and the answer is always "it takes time!", but how long does it really take to make new games and show results? The Xbox One was still fairly new when Spencer took over, and here we are an entire generation later with little to nothing to show but delays and lackluster games that are going to be on PC anyway.
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