Halo Gets A Themed Xbox Elite Controller

 During Geoff Keighley's Opening Night Live, developer 343 Industries revealed a Halo-themed Xbox Elite Wireless Controller celebrating the series 20th anniversary. The controller is modeled closely after protagonist Master Chief's body armor, featuring the same iconic green color scheme and chestplates. The controller is will costs $199.99 USD.

Halo Infinite Is Launching In December

Developer 343 Industries have confirmed that Halo Infinite will arrive on December 8th. Also announced was that the game won't be launching with campaign co-op or Forge mode, which allows players to create and play custom maps. 

Halo Infinite To Be Released In Fall 2021

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industires have revealed via a post on the official website, that the game will be released in Fall 2021. 

"Much of the feedback we heard from the community aligned with our own views and work we were already committed to doing around things like indirect lighting, material response, foliage and tree rendering, clouds, level-of-detail transitions, and character fidelity," says Neill Harrison, director of art management at 343 Industries. Still, the feedback was humbling, and it also pushed us to look at additional opportunities for improvement."

A new style is being shown for the vision of the game that's coming next fall.

"On the graphics technology front we have made improvements along with fixing bugs that were inherent to some of the techniques, as well as iterating and polishing the features that were still in development," says Ani Shastry, development manager the for graphics team on Halo Infinite. "Some of the key areas of progress include better quality of global illumination, ambient occlusion, shadows, volumetric lighting, sky, and atmosphere. We have also addressed issues with our GPU-driven rendering and texture streaming solution that should mitigate the LOD popping and texture quality issues that were prevalent in the July demo."

The live team also addressed areas like design pillars and how free-to-play multiplayer will be tackled. 

"Yes, being free-to-play does mean that there will be some premium cosmetics, but players will still obtain tons of customization content through things like playing campaign, challenges, skill, special events, legacy rewards (such as the Halo 5 SR 152 reward), the progress system, and more. We will always provide value for pure engagement and simply playing the game. We believe that providing value isn’t exclusive to monetary transactions, it’s also about making sure you’re properly rewarded for the time you’re investing into the game," says lead progression designer Christopher Blohm. "Players that play for free will be able unlock items across a multitude of different customization types to allow them to represent themselves in-game."

Halo Infinite Delayed Into 2021

It has been announced via the official Halo Twitter that Halo Infinite has been delayed into 2021. 343 Industries studio head Chris Lee released a brief statement explaining the delay. Lee cites multiple factors, but names the challenges of developing in the midst of the COVID pandemic as a contributing factor. “The extra time will let us finish the critical work necessary to deliver the most ambitious Halo game ever at the quality we know our fans expect,” Lee says in his statement. Read the full statement on the Twitter, on the Halo Waypoint site, or in the image below. 

Halo Reach Releasing On Xbox One And PC In December

Community Director for 343 Industries Brian Jarrard announced the long-awaited Halo Reach will launch on Xbox One and PC on December 3.

With upgraded with 4K visuals, Halo Reach's release marks the completion of the Master Chief Collection on Xbox One. Unfortunately though, PC fans will have to wait a bit longer to have every Halo game in their Steam libraries. Starting with Halo Reach, each game in the Master Chief Collection will eventually make its way to PC before the end of 2020.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection Releasing For PC One By One

Microsoft has announced that The Master Chief Collection is coming to PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store. Rather than releasing every title at once, 343 Industries is launching the games in chronological order for when the story takes place. This means that PC players will first experience Halo: Reach's campaign, multiplayer, and Firefight modes, then Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo 4. Players purchase the games individually within The Master Chief Collection as they launch, though no pricing has been announced at this time. Halo: The Master Chief Collection will begin rolling out on Steam and the Microsoft Store later this year.

Microsoft Announces Halo Infinite

During the Xbox E3 conference, 343 Industries announced a new Halo titled, Halo Infinite. A brief tease was showed off which looked like a new Halo ring and a sea of full of interesting creatures. Executive President of Gaming at Microsoft Phil Spencer called it "Master Chief’s greatest adventure”. No Other information is known at this time. Check out the announcement trailer below. 

Don’t Expect To See Halo 6 At E3

If you were expecting to see Halo 6 at E3 this year then think again. According to 343 Industries' community manager, they're not going to be showing off the next big entry in the series during next month's E3. "I'll slip into my Dreamcrusher persona for a minute in the name of realistic expectations: We've said this already but we'll have a little something at E3 but it's not related to the next major entry in the franchise," Ske7ch (aka Brian Jarrard) wrote on Reddit, in a response to a fan who was hoping for upcoming info on the series' future. 

Halo Wars 2 PC Physical Release Cancelled For U.S.

343 Industries has announced that Halo Wars 2 will no longer be getting a physical release for PC in the U.S. In a post on Halo Waypoint, 343's community manager Brian Jarrard explained that "retail plans have shifted and Microsoft has made the decision to focus the release of the physical retail version to Europe only." "THQ Nordic is a great partner and they are working with us to ensure this transition remains smooth for our customers ... We apologize to any customers affected by the change in our retail plans, and thank everyone for the continued support as we look forward to the release of Halo Wars 2," Jarrard said. The digital version of Halo Wars 2 on PC will still be available worldwide when the game launches on February 21 for both PC and Xbox One.

Halo 5 Forge Comes To Windows 10 + Free Update For Xbox One Players

Halo 5 is coming to Windows 10, but as previously reported on it’s not quite what you think. Microsoft and 343 are releasing the Forge building tools for that platform. You’ll be able to start building maps with mouse and keyboard on September 8. Halo 5: Forge will support custom games for up to 16 people. Any Forge creations built and shared on Windows 10 can be downloaded by other players on both PC and Xbox One. 343 will also be releasing the next free update for Halo 5: Guardians on Xbox One. Anvil’s Legacy includes a content browser for Forge mode, new maps for Arena and Warzone and new weapons and cosmetics.

UPDATE 8/29/16 - Here are the system requirements for Halo 5 Forge on Windows 10. 

Halo 5: Guardians Firefight Mode Is Free For Everyone Until July 5

Microsoft and 343 Industries are celebrating Halo 5's free Warzone Firefight update by giving everyone with an Xbox Live Gold account access to play until July 5. Warzone Firefight features additional vehicles, boss battles and it’s up to 8 players per team. The new Halo 5 update includes a number of extras besides Firefight, including a Score Attack mode for the main campaign, 3 new maps, a new Forge map and new REQ items.

Halo 5’s Forge Mode Is Coming To Windows 10

Halo 5 developer, 343 Industries has announced the ability to make and play Halo 5 Forge maps on Windows 10. 343 said it is bringing Halo 5: Guardians' Forge mode to PC as a free Windows 10 app. Titled Forge – Halo 5: Guardians, the standalone mode will allow users to create and play their own Forge maps on PC and then publish them to Xbox One. The Windows 10 version also will allow players to use a keyboard and mouse. 343 isn't saying when the Windows 10 app will be release, stating that more information will come later this year. Xbox One players can expect "new environments, advanced file sharing capabilities, new pieces, palettes, props, and much more" for Forge mode in the coming months. Could this be a test to see how well the app does, then Microsoft could bring Halo 5 to Windows 10 ? Only time will tell. What do you think ?