New Halo Infinite Report Has Hardcore Halo Fans Excited

A new Halo Infinite report will be music to the ears of hardcore Halo fans awaiting the game's release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. However, on the flip side, the report, if true, may spell trouble for the game's prospects of achieving massive commercial success. When Halo Infinite releases this holiday season, it will be an instant commercial success, even if it falls short critically. That's just the pull power of Halo. However, to throw punches with the biggest games in the industry, many of which occupy a similar place genre-wise, Halo Infinite will need to appeal to more than just hardcore fans, however, it sounds like its chief priority is appealing to the series biggest followers.

Speaking about Halo Infinite and its presence at E3 2021, industry insider and Venture Beat reporter, Jeff Grubb, noted that it appears Microsoft will be catering to "Halo-a** Halo fans" with Halo Infinite. To this end, Grubb theorizes that more casual fans may see Halo Infinite as simply more Halo rather than something new and exciting, and thus it could release to an underwhelming reception.

Unfortunately, Grubb doesn't dive much further into this, and right now it's unclear how much of this is based on knowledge of the game and its development versus his personal expectations based on what Microsoft has shown and said about the game. Whatever the case, it lines up with what I've heard, which is that 343 Industries is focused on making a great Halo game that Halo fans will love. And that's why there probably won't be a battle royale mode at launch, if ever, because while this would be smart for the game commercially, it's not key to impressing the series' most hardcore fans. In fact, it actively works against this.

All of that said, be sure to take everything here with a grain of salt. While Grubb has proven reliable in the past, he's also been wrong in the past, which is how it goes for every leaker and insider.

At the moment of publishing, neither 343 Industries nor Microsoft nor anyone involved with the two has commented on any of this. We don't expect this to change, but if it does, we will be sure to update the story accordingly.