What happened to Halo Infinite and can this game be able to find esports redemption?

I am a diehard halo fan. I’ve played all the games, read all the books, and spent weeks to months of my life playing Lone Wolf ranked, ghostbusters, and fat-kid custom games, and making beautiful, detailed maps in forge.

After devouring the initial run of Halo titles made by Bungie the series was passed to a new company that would take up the mantle: 343 Industries. While their first two entries into the Halo franchise were pretty good, they didn’t quite capture the magic the same way as I remembered. For most of the 2010s, I assumed that Halo, or at least the Halo I remembered, was more or less dead.

However, that all changed in 2018 when this trailer debuted at E3 of that year. Boasting a brand new game engine and open-world campaign, it felt like the franchise that made my childhood great was about to make its triumphant return. Unfortunately, after setbacks, delays, and backlash to whatever the heck this was, my faith, as well as many others in the community, was shaken.

Over the next few months, people wrote Halo Infinite off as another subpar game released by 343 studios. With so much backlash for a title that was expected to carry the release of Microsoft’s newest console, the Xbox Series X, the decision was made to delay the game’s release until the winter of 2021.

For many, this was a step in the right direction, as the game was clearly not ready to be released, and another year in development might just be what the title needed.