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Halo Infinite now due in autumn 2021They’re improving the looks
They’re improving the looks
After announcing in August that they were delayingHalo Infinite’s launch from November into next year, developers 343 Industries have now revealed quite how long we’re talking: autumn 2021. That’s a big’un - it could potentially be a delay of over a year. For such a long delay to happen at such short notice, something seems wrong. The devs don’t explain the full scope of what’s up, but they do talk a lot about improvements to its looks over what we saw in July.
343 Industries announced the new autumn 2021 release window intheir December blogblast. “And from now until then,” creative director Joseph Staten said, “every one of us at 343i and our great partner teams will be building, testing, and polishing an experience we hope all of you love.”
The blog post gathers several key members of the art and graphics teams to talk about the game’s looks, which were disappointing to some folks who saw July’s “Gameplay Premiere” video:
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“The primary goal for the Campaign demo in July was showingHalo Infinitegameplay for the first time,” said Neill Harrison, director of art management. “While that aspect generally landed as we wanted, the reality is that the art and visuals weren’t at the bar we hold for Halo – even in a work-in-progress state.” He said that a lot of criticism from folks who saw the video “aligned with our own views and work we were already committed to doing” but “still, the feedback was humbling, and it also pushed us to look at additional opportunities for improvement.”
The blog post also gabs with some of the live service team, touching on armour customisation with the ‘coating’ system and some concerns about the consequences ofmultiplayer being free-to-play.
“Yes, being free-to-play does mean that there will be some premium cosmetics,” lead progression designer Christopher Blohm said, “but players will still obtain tons of customization content through things like playing campaign, challenges, skill, special events, legacy rewards (such as the Halo 5 SR 152 reward), the progression system, and more.” He stressed that it won’t have loot boxes or random rewards. I suspect the full scope of everything won’t be clear for some time.
Given awee tweety hintfrom 343 head Bonnie Ross, I wouldn’t be surprised if Infinite launches around the 20th birthday of the first Halo: November 15th.
