Halo Infinite delay will give you the "game you deserve", says studio head

343 studio head Bonnie Ross has promised that the prolonged wait for Halo Infinite will be well worth it.

A new post on Halo Waypoint went up yesterday on December 22, in which Ross reflected on 2020, and looked ahead to next year for the Halo franchise. "2021 will be a big year for the Halo franchise. As we recently announced, Halo Infinite will release in fall of 2021. I realize the wait has been difficult, and I assure you that the team wants the game in your hands as soon as possible, but they also want to deliver something special… the Halo game you deserve," Ross writes.

"Thank you for your patience, your understanding, and most importantly your words of support to the team," the studio head continues. "I cannot express how grateful I am for the Halo community and the encouragement you’ve expressed to us. It has lifted us up and provided us the fuel to keep going. As you saw from the recent blog post, the team is making tremendous progress and is SO eager to show you more."

Earlier this month, 343 announced that Halo Infinite is currently targeting a release window of Fall 2021. This delay puts Halo Infinite launching a year after it was meant to release in Fall 2020, to coincide with the launch of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S as a day one title.

There's been plenty of changes behind the scenes during Halo Infinite's development. Longtime Bungie developer Chris Lee was originally recruited as director for the new game in 2018, but departed earlier this year in October, being replaced by another Bungie veteran, Joseph Staten. Since then, rumors have swirled around the upcoming Halo game, including an alleged battle royale mode, leading 343 to state that it would be "more communicative" in future.

For a complete list of all the other games scheduled to come to Microsoft's more powerful console at some point in the future, head over to our upcoming Xbox Series X games guide for more.