Bungie, the studio that created Halo, is famously obsessed with the number seven. It is why there are seven Halo rings, for instance, and references to it can be found in many other places in both Halo and Destiny. But with 343 Industries and Microsoft now in control of Halo’s future, it seems that Bungie will never get the chance to see “Halo 7” on a store shelf. That’s because 343 is treating this holiday’s Xbox Series X flagship launch title Halo Infinite as “the start of our platform for the future.”
IGN spoke with Halo Infinite Studio Head Chris Lee ahead of today’s long-awaited gameplay reveal of Halo Infinite at the Xbox Games Showcase. During that conversation, Lee revealed that Infinite is the last standalone release for the franchise for the foreseeable future.
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“Halo Infinite is the start of our platform for the future,” he said. “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.”
This does not mean that Halo Infinite is a live service game, a la Destiny. But it does mean that new story experiences will be told underneath Infinite’s umbrella, and it also means Infinite will be evolved technologically for quite a while. 343 confirmed that Infinite will get a free raytracing update sometime after launch. Gameplay-wise, hopefully the move to Infinite as a platform won’t mean that players are trapped on this Halo ring forever, but we’ll have to wait and see what 343 has in store for us in the Xbox Series X generation to find out.
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For more on Halo Infinite, don’t miss more of our exclusive conversation with Lee and Crocker, including details on the Xbox Series X’s premier launch title’s open world and its new weapons and upgrades, the first information on its villain and story, and why Infinite is trying to be a great starting point for new Halo players.
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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.
Source: IGN.com Why There Won’t Be a Halo Infinite 2