The announcement of Halo Infinite came as little surprise to people who had paid attention to rumors over the past several years.

But its delay was no less disappointing and now we’re learning that it is due to some pretty special circumstances, namely the ongoing work on the Halo television series, among other things.

That’s what Thurrott is reporting and the website claims that inside sources pin the delay of Halo Infinite on, among other things, the television series as well as extensive outsourcing of the game’s development.

The television series is cited as a particularly huge time sink. But there’s also the added pressure of trying to bring out a launch title game.

Halo Infinite is being built around the all-new SlipSpace engine and the complexities of that development have made a launch timeframe for the game’s release nearly impossible.

In fact, the E3 demo shown off last year was of a game that was “was not in a state that was playable at that level of fidelity.”

Thurrott also quotes this unnamed insider source on the extensive outsourcing on the project as saying, “The coordination between the many different companies contributing to Infinite has been rough, at best. One person familiar with the company’s plans indicated that they believed the out-sourcing for Infinite was at a ratio higher than a typical studio undertakes during development which has caused significant headaches for cross-development collaboration.”

Of course, none of this is mentioned in the official statement from the studio:

“Today I want to share an important Halo Infinite development update with the community. We have made the difficult decision to shift our release to 2021 to ensure the team has adequate time to deliver a Halo game experience that meets our vision.

The decision to shift our release is the result of multiple factors that have contributed to development challenges, including the ongoing COVID-related impacts affecting us all this year. I want to acknowledge the hard work from our team at 343 Industries, who have remained committed to making a great game and finding solutions to development challenges. However, it is not sustainable for the well-being of our team or the overall success of the game to ship it this holiday.

We know this will be disappointing to many of you and we all share in that sentiment. The passion and support the community has shown over the years has been incredible and inspiring. We wanted nothing more than to play our game with the community this holiday. 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.”

Really, though, if you’ve paid attention since the infamous gameplay reveal, it’s probably not that shocking that they’re going to take a little more time with everything.

Not only did that gameplay reveal last month provide ample meme material for the more creative out there, but it also drew derisive commentary from Halo skeptics and even some disappointed comments from diehard fans. Since nothing is finalized it would be a shame to judge something this early and now it looks like Microsoft’s marquee property is going to take a little bit more time to make sure everything is just right.

As for when exactly the game will be coming out that is still up in the air at the moment.

What do you think of the uproar over Halo Infinite’s gameplay reveal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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