For the 20th anniversary, Halo Infinite will have an early multiplayer launch

To commemorate the franchise’s 20^th anniversary, the most recent Halo game was published three weeks early.

Halo: Infinite was meant to be out last year, but it was postponed until December 2021. However, Microsoft confirmed on Monday at an Xbox 20^th anniversary event that the multiplayer element of the game would be released on the same day.

The single-player campaign will not be released until December 8^th. At its apex in the mid-2000s, Halo was recognised as much for its online multiplayer as it was for its story-driven campaign.

Microsoft has released the multiplayer component of this game independently as a free-to-play product, which is a common business approach for many online games but a notable departure for the Halo franchise.

Following a stormy development cycle for the game as a whole, the release was highly applauded by fans eager to play the multiplayer, which received positive early reviews after a tumultuous development cycle for the game as a whole.

Ampere Analysis’s Piers Harding-Rolls stated that the game was already breaking records for player numbers for a Microsoft game on PC, despite complaints about the levelling system being slow-paced and possibly irritating.

However, “it could be used as a promotional tool for the launch of the campaign edition of the game and for sign-ups to Microsoft’s subscription programme, Game Pass, which will include the premium version of the game at launch because it was free to play.”

Because of its early release, Halo will face off against two huge November shooters: Battlefield 2042 and Call of Duty: Vanguard.

At the anniversary video stream, Microsoft also debuted the first teaser trailer for the live-action Halo TV series from Paramount as well as a six-part documentary on the creation of the first Xbox. The company also revealed that more than 70 original Xbox and Xbox 360 games would be added to its compatibility programme, allowing them to be played on contemporary consoles.