Paris (AFP)
Halo Infinite, the highly anticipated latest installment of the famous video game franchise developed by Microsoft, will not be released until 2021 and will therefore not be available at the launch of the group's new Xbox console, its developer announced.
"We made the difficult decision to postpone the release to 2021 to ensure that the team has the time necessary to develop a gaming experience in line with our vision," Chris Lee, studio director at 343 wrote on Twitter Tuesday evening. Industries, a Microsoft subsidiary responsible for the development of new games in the franchise.
The company justifies this choice by the impacts relating to the epidemic which affected the development of the game.
"It is not tenable, for the well-being of the team or for the overall success of the game, to launch it for the holidays," added Mr. Lee.
The studio had released a first glimpse of the game during a Microsoft promotional event in July, received coldly by critics who had generally considered the graphics disappointing for a game claiming to be "the most ambitious" in the series.
Launched in 2001, Halo features an interstellar war between humans and aliens in a first-person shooter. Derived from novels, comics, and movies, the franchise was a big part of the success of Microsoft's Xbox console.
The next version of it, the Xbox Series X, is due out in November, while the end of the year will also be marked by the release of its competitor Sony's Playstation 5.
This new generation of consoles, with increased performance, is eagerly awaited by fans, the previous generation dating from 2013 (PS4 and XBox One).
© 2020 AFP