This past week saw the first event of both the Summer of Gaming and Xbox 20/20. The Inside Xbox event, which focused on third-party titles that will be coming to Xbox Series X, was well-received but also controversial. It made clear that gamers were hungry for next-gen game announcements, but also that they want big, bombastic next-gen games to be showcased. Microsoft's response is to confirm what may be the biggest game release of 2020, Halo Infinite is for sure on-track to be shown this July.
The official announcement comes directly from 343 Industries in its routine Halo Waypoint update. 343 says, "You may have seen people talking about this lightly before," referring to a brief mention in the earlier Inside Xbox event. "But we're extremely excited to confirm that Halo Infinite will be one of the many first-party titles included in the Xbox 20/20 event in July. Get ready." If 343 is willing to directly confirm Halo Infinite's participation in the event, then it's all but guaranteed.
Funnily enough, the "light" mention from May 7's Inside Xbox event provides more information about Halo Infinite's July reveal than 343's new update. The announcement came from head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty. He said at the start of the presentation that Halo Infinite will be at the July Xbox 20/20 event. More than that, however, he said that Halo Infinite's gameplay will be shown for the first time during the event.
It may come as a surprise to many Halo fans that Gameplay has yet to be shown. After all, Halo Infinite has been showcased at E3 since 2018. But 343's managed to keep virtually all of Halo Infinite mysterious. In 2018, it showed an in-engine cinematic to show what the game might look like. In 2019, 343 showed a cinematic trailer that could be taken directly from the game. Gameplay has not been shown.
The big question now is how much Halo Infinite gameplay on the Xbox Series X will look like the demo footage shown in 2018, or even the cinematic footage shown in 2019. It may have been improved, for all fans know.
What Microsoft and 343 have done with such a simple announcement is set expectations to the maximum. Halo Infinite is the one next-gen game that gamers know will be an example of just what next-gen consoles can do. And now they know when it'll be fully unveiled. The July Xbox 20/20 event can't arrive soon enough.
Halo Infinite releases holiday 2020.