Halo Infinite isn’t just another game, it’s a platform for future content

Microsoft’s biggest gun in their Xbox arsenal ha always been Halo, and last night’s Xbox Series X showcase unleashed some heavy firepower with a brand new look at Halo Infinite. On the surface, it looks typically Halo: A vast ring-world to explore, plenty of cannon fodder to blast your way through and Master Chief’s latest nemesis having more personality in one teaser than the titular hero has had in six games. Business as usual!

Only not exactly, as this slice of action is going to be the foundation that future Halo games are built on for the next couple of years. “Halo Infinite is the start of our platform for the future,” Halo Infinite Studio Head Chris Lee said to IGN.

We want Infinite to grow over time, versus going to those numbered titles and having all that segmentation that we had before. It’s really about creating Halo Infinite as the start of the next ten years for Halo and then building that as we go with our fans and community.

Developer 343 Industries isn’t going the live service route that Destny pioneered over the last couple of years, but will instead use Halo Infinite to tell new stories and field-test technology such as a free ray-tracing update which will arrive after launch. And it’s going to look rather stunning thanks to that Slipspace technology powering the entire spectacle.

“The technical enhancements of the Slipspace Engine are too extensive to truly get into here, but one callout is how we are now able to pack in 10 times the processing per pixel, creating the most visually rich game we’ve ever made to go with the most open and expansive environment to appear in a Halo game,” Lee wrote on the Halo Waypoint blog.

That’s just the start though, as Xbox Velocity Architecture brings near instant loading, Smart Delivery will pull the optimal version for your device, and we will be running campaign at 60FPS with up to 4K resolution. We are also designing Halo Infinite to grow and evolve over time so we can continue to deliver experiences to our players well beyond launch. This is the most technically advanced Halo game ever created, paired with the most powerful console on the planet, allowing us to create the most vivid and immersive way to experience our universe.

That’s going to be a whole lot of dead grunts come launch day for this Xbox Series X title. At least that title makes a whole lot more sense, the more I think about it. Also here’s a slick Mondo poster by artist Matt Ryan Tobin to celebrate the impending release of Halo Infinite:

Nice.

Last Updated: July 24, 2020