Halo Infinite multiplayer early release is live now on PC and Xbox

The Halo Infinite multiplayer early release is real, and it's live right now.

Microsoft and 343 Industries revealed that the competitive multiplayer portion of the game is now live on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and PC in beta form. This marks the beginning of the first season of the game, titled Heroes of Reach, and all of your progress will carry forward into Halo Infinite when it officially launches on December 8.

Halo Infinite multiplayer is free-to-play, which means you'll be able to jump right into the beta and start playing without needing to pay - if you do like what you play, you can always pick up the campaign on the full release date, though it will also be included with Xbox Game Pass.

While the beta is officially live now, it looks like many would-be players are running into issues with launching the game; the issue appears to go back to the full install itself not being live yet, with a smaller placeholder app instead living where the Halo Infinite client is supposed to go. We attempted to install and launch the PC version of Halo Infinite multiplayer but only a small blue window titled "GameStubWindows" popped up.

In any case, if you are having trouble getting online, the 343 Industries site has a complete overview of what is available in the beta so you can start to get ready to play. The current list of known issues does not include booting up to a blue screen, which hopefully means it's in for a fix soon.

Meanwhile, we've also had our first look at the Halo Infinite opening stage in the campaign, featuring Master Chief shooting lots of aliens on their big ship.