What a disaster. Serious questions need to be asked of the leadership team Bonnie and Chris. They just cost the Series X a fantastic launch.
I for one am now questioning whether to buy the Series X at launch. They needed a killer title at launch, this was it.
Im just so shocked. Theres some underlying root cause issues at 343. Satya wont be happy with this.
Well said. 10000% this.
The thing is, we don’t know the full launch line up. Now that is something that MS needs to address sooner or later but I imagine a lot of things are up in the air with many studios, not just 1st party teams. The last thing they want to do is announce more games for launch that end up not making it.
Also if I’m being honest, and I’m only speaking for myself here, but I was looking forward to Halo but it was not the reason I plan to get a Series X at launch. Even if Halo launched with the system, I wouldn’t see it as a next gen showpiece titles if it looked similar to the demo we saw last month.
Hopefully we don’t need to wait too long to find out the actual launch details.
Funny thing is recall many considering the 360 having an amazing launch even though the only attention grabbing 1st party game was PGR3. Perfect Dark Zero was ridiculed because of wall guy and ended up mediocre at best while Kameo did not get nearly the amount of attention it deserved. Despite all of this, the launch was still a success.
Considering how COVID has effected everyone, I think we should wait for more concrete news before we jump to any conclusions.
Hey, if the game isn’t ready, the game isn’t ready. Covid was a thing this year.
I get your frustration but for context
Blaming all this on a studio head is dumb imo. Just be patient we have waited so long already
A lot of people seem to be underestimating the impact of the pandemic. I’m not in gaming (in another engineering discipline) and have seen my schedules push one week after another over the last few months. Limited personnel, reduced efficiency, supplier delays, everything. I have no complaints of anything getting delayed in this environment.
Phil would not of granted the delay if the game did not need it.
Delays with big games is common, they dont tell us how development have gone. Though if it was my call I would not of green lit the 10min gameplay demo.
If 343 are having problems though its time for phil to say “enough excuses, you are not delivering” and new leads will be needed. Xbox really needs some AAA 90+ games besides forza horizon.
This is premature. If the game gets under 85 metacritic then yes, off with bonnie and the other top dogs at 343.
What if it has 30 million players at launch? What if the campaign sells 10 million copies in the first week?
Metacritic scores mean less and less, especially for games that aren’t critic-bait.
This is great news for halo, BUT once again ms long lasting decades abuse of not investing in their first party bites them in the ass again.
Surely we can be more tasteful here than to call for people to lose their jobs especially when we have absolutely no idea what the reasons behind things are? Criticism of things is one thing but calling for people to lose jobs especially individuals is pretty awful stuff that I would hope isn’t a common thing here.
Oh and I guess this means the ray tracing patch will be there at launch instead of post launch. Even more reason why I’m excited for the game and happy they delayed it.
A year, make it the banger of late 2021 and own the scene. 2020 was already crowded enough with FF8 Remake, Cyber Punk, TLOU2, Animal Crossing etc.
Right?! I was actually a little frustrated, as I wanted to play the game with ray tracing but I also had to play the game day one.
Now I get it regardless!
Good call from them, honestly. Game looked fun, but also a little rough around the edges. We’re in a worldwide pandemic, so take all the time you need, 343.
However, now that it’s a 2021 game, they should cancel Xbox One version altogether. Right now 343 has to develop for Five different pieces of hardware, taking the older console out of the equation has to be beneficial. By 2021 the active playerbase of the One would have shrunk massively, to the point where you think if it’s even worth it anymore.
I am annoyed for sure, but I will still get it at launch. I have a massive backlog of games (over 100) and I would rather play on XSX than my XOX.
2018 actually. Microsoft restructured in late 2017. They announced a new Xbox strategy that would include 1st party games coming day 1 to Game Pass in early 2018. Announced studio investments mid 2018.
It takes a good 4 to 5 years to make AAA games that aren’t working off an established engine and template. So yeah, to support what you’re saying, the start of this gen was putting a lot on the backs of 343 to carry them across that large gap caused by lack of investment prior to 2018. Nothing they can do about the past. I think the decisions they’re making right now are the right ones for the future though.
November 15th 2021 is Halo’s 20th Anniversary 
Also this means we’re definitely going to get an open flight/beta
Ray Tracing at launch + open flight/beta + polishing the game and mechanics
I’m totally cool with a 2021 launch especially with Cyberpunk hitting the shelves this year. And if we get a multiplayer beta that would be even better
Sad to see HI delayed, but I want the best Halo possible whenever it does come out, so I’m happy about it. I thought it looked good and very fun, even though there were clearly some bugs to work out. If Series X users can get RT at launch, that would be a huge bonus.
This doesn’t change my decision to buy a Series X on day one at all. The money is allocated and ready. I’m over HDDs and ready for SSDs. I’ll be playing the best console version of Cyberpunk, replay Control and finally grab the Control DLC. Hopefully we can get a Series X patch for Apex Legends with 4K/120fps 
I can’t see them delaying past May.
They will, its likely going to be a holiday 2021 game
The symbolism of the 20th anniversary of Halo and also there is no way they’d release Halo outside of the Holiday season. They have nothing to gain from it being released in May or Summer. November 2021, book it.
There still needs to be a certain level of prestige though. Critically speaking, I would say Infinite needs to at LEAST be an 87-88 so it can be on par with Apex, Doom Eternal, Titanfall 2. Not only are they the best FPS of the gen but some of the best games of the gen period and Halo should be right there with them in terms of quality.
The 360 had to also, Gears didn’t come out until a year after the 360 launched
I would bet real money that Infinite will get pushed back until Holiday 2021