Yesterday’s Halo Infinite Gameplay Was From an Earlier Build of the Game.

Yesterday's Halo Infinite gameplay was from an earlier build of the game and its visuals will be improved, Aaron Greenberg confirms.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Then why didn’t 343i label the demo as an alpha or pre-alpha? Textures in the demo looked uneven.

[crazyCoconuts]

Whatever the heck they label it, it's got less than 3 months to go gold for release in early November. That ain't a lot of time.

[laserap]

Me and my friend could not stop laughing when they were showing the gameplay and graphics. It was so bad. We also smoked some haha.

[morganfell]

@laserap,

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[bouzebbal]

Lol so they aren't ready for anything.. Not a single game shown seems to be making the launch

[GamerRN]

Yeah, they didn't have such hard hitters as bug snacks

[morganfell]

@crazyCoconuts,

Anyone else getting the vibe when this game launches...not all of it will launch? Why does it feel like you won't finish the fight this fall and instead get episodic campaign chapters and only some maps with a few multiplayer modes. I don't know but normally we would be talking beta test for HALO. Right now its multiplayer crickets. Starting to wonder if due to the state of the game and these hints about Infinity constantly growing its Microsoft's way of prepping people for the announcement that the entire game isn't shipping this year.

[Marquinho]

If it's an old build, then it's not 3 months from then to Gold.

[RgR]

It's not a lot of time depending on when that pre alpha build was from. If it was from a year ago or 6 months ago then it is plenty of time as they would be far ahead of what was shown.

Not knowing when the build was from makes it impossible to tell but I highly doubt they would show something that isn't close to what the game looks like now

[alb1899]

Yep but the video is from a year ago. This is not where it is right now. I don't understand what MS is looking for with this but is not working. They have to show the game as it is right now.
I remember they did the same with Gears 5 and everyone were attacking MS because of it but at the end Gears 5 is one of the best looking videogames of this gen. I hope the same with Halo.

[morganfell]

"Yep but the video is from a year ago. This is not where it is right now. "

Proof? And a statement from a PR person that flies in the face of all logic is not proof. You do not take your biggest game reveal of the year and use a year old video when the game would have been in Alpha. Sorry but that statement does not pass the smell test.

[crazyCoconuts]

Right, like 343 gave Phil a year old video to show. "Oh, you needed that by end of day, Phil? I'm sorry, I didn't know you had a Game Showcase coming... This is the first I heard of it..." Give me a break

[arminukxbox]

Do u even know how big is 343i they got so many people working for them it’s not like they got only 10 people working on it

[ic3fir3]

rumours say the demo have 7months old

[morganfell]

"rumours say the demo have 7months old"

But facts say otherwise. And they are saying this premiere was polished work.

https://www.343industries.c...

"But while it’s easy to get carried away about the prospect of playing Halo Infinite, it’s worth taking a minute to think about the enormous work put into this playable preview of Halo Infinite. While this is just a section of the final game, it took a herculean effort to make sure this little corner of our Ringworld was polished and pretty enough for its premiere! The art, lighting, design, environment, graphics, production and engineering teams involved in carving out and curating this little slice, are nervous and excited to show people a glimpse of what we’re building."

[Double_O_Revan]

Aahhhh. Here comes all the damage control PR.

[Livingthedream]

Sounds like it's almost finished to me lol, I've never been into halo but thought this would better. The other showings were pretty good though

[Vegamyster]

Dunno, both Gears 4 and Gears 5 had good visual improvements over there Betas a few months before launch, Halo 5 had changes but those were more stylistic. I find it hard to believe that some of those textures are final, even if they were supposed to be final it’s not like it’s hard to change textures like faces/weapons.

[OCEANGROWNKUSH]

PR? More like fanboy delusion

[King_Noctis]

Didn’t the start screen says “Press X to start Demo” or something like that?

But you’re right, they should have labelled it as such.

[neutralgamer1992]

King

What does that mean

[Tacoboto]

It means it was an actual demo. Maybe they included those few seconds so they hit 10:00 gameplay for the show? It was unneeded... that lack of lighting went out of its way to tell us that was gameplay

[neutralgamer1992]

Ok so are you saying because it was gameplay it looked so dull. That can't be the case otherwise no company would ever show gameplay demos

Ms just did a poor job and should have said in screen still in development early footage how come they are coming days after all the negative PR to put a new spin on it

First of all that's bad game to showcase the power of your console. They should have chosen another game but like we have been saying now for a while most of their heavy hitters are in early development and won't be ready until 2022-2023 that's why they want to say we will support current gen for 1.5-2 years

Ms has been just delivering so many mixed messages and that's why it seems they are saying one thing and doing another

[Livingthedream]

This looks to be a close to final build, the effects looked really impressive the scope of the game looks massive but...... The other visuals need to be picked up to really impress

[RgR]

A demo is usually released in a state close or the same as the finished product.

[morganfell]

As IRetrouk pointed out, this destroys the idea this was an old build. They actually link the demo in the official article.

https://www.343industries.c...

"While this is just a section of the final game, it took a herculean effort to make sure this little corner of our Ringworld was polished and pretty enough for its premiere!"

[rainslacker]

I'd probably respect them more if they just said that they were behind because of CV, and said they had to delay the game. That's even very possible. But, if it's an earlier build, then with CV, and knowing that MS did shut down in office work, then it's quite possible this is where the game is at right now still, as from what I understand, MS only started doing limited in office work again a few weeks ago across their company.

Doing non-office work was disruptive to a lot of developers over the last few months, so I can understand that they may be behind, but as of now, MS hasn't shown any signs that they are going to delay the game over it.

But, then we get to the issue of them saying that they were happy with what they were going to show. They didn't temper expectations.

Then, we get into this issue of being told to go watch the 4K upload. While that's a fine idea, 4K isn't going to change the technical issues that were shown. It's also not going to make poor textures look better. It's just going to be a sharper image, and given that TV screens already upscale 1080 streams, it's not going to show a marked difference on a bland environment. It's not going to add in details which were missing from the design. It's not going to improve the AI. It's not going to improve lackluster object design. It's not going to remove the rather apparent texture pop-in. It's not going to make it so the environment is now responsive. So on and so forth.

Yeah, this may very well be an old build, but this is probably close to what they'll release with, because if they didn't have something better at least a couple weeks ago to build from, which is when they likely would have built this version, then there just isn't time to get this game anywhere close to big mega-hit AAA standards. The devs would have to be working mad crunch time to make it happen, and probably still wouldn't come close.

MS apparently isn't going to delay this, and while I'm sure they would be mocked for it, it's probably actually necessary. But it seems they're too concerned with having this as a launch title for the XSX.

I don't feel it's good to launch a console, then just carry over the, "wait until later" routine on their first venture into next gen gaming. That has already been a sour mark against them this gen, and it doesn't instill confidence that anything has changed.

Covid is a valid reason to delay games right now. MS and Sony have made it known they closed their offices company wide for it, and they did so for a couple months. There should be no shame in it, and people are more impressed with a solid game delivered late, than they are with a half-finished game delivered on time. If the game is good, they'll still be excited for it months down the road. If they aren't impressed early on, it can be hard to get people to return to it. Very few games actually manage to come back from a poor launch.

[conanlifts]

This late in development should be about finding and fixing bugs. Imagine how many bugs will exist if they are still overhauling the game.

[_dangerclose_]

I always typically agree and respect what you say rain and here's no exception, that being said covid isn't an excuse for poor game design and quality especially when its supposed to be a game running on "the worlds most powerful console". Other developers have been able to release amazing looking game despite the pandemic.

[rainslacker]

@conan

Yeah, and most major bugs should be worked out by now.

@Danger

It isn't an excuse for poor game design, but it is an excuse for being behind schedule.

However, in this case, they look more than 2-3 months behind schedule. This looks more like a year or two behind schedule....at least in some areas. Even assuming that CV only put them three months behind, there is no way many of the things that were wrong with this demo would be fixed in three extra months.

The AI alone is easily something that takes an entire production cycle to get right, and is usually still being worked on up to final build. This game's AI was so simplistic, it's either they weren't trying, or they are way behind.

The lighting and some other things in this game looks like what you'd see at about 1-1.5 years from launch. Unoptimized baking, terrible LOD's, no finer details on world object interactivity. Those are all things that tend to start having people add them in around this time.

The cinematics looked pretty rough. Stiff, with poor animations and flow. It didn't feel natural at all, and it's what I'd expect to see in lower budget last gen games. Cinematics are generally more late in the cycle kind of things, and what we saw would be placeholder things until the director knew for sure what needed to stay in. Very few studios do a lot of finer detail animation work on the cinematics earlier in the process, and it's those studios which often get praised for their cinematics that do so. Minor quibble in the overall quality of the game, but it kind of shows where they're at with production

At work today, a bunch of us were analyzing the trailer, and there are people at my work who are exceptional at noticing little details that are not right, and they were pointing out things that no one has mentioned yet, and probably would never even notice. But the general conclusion that most of them came to was that this game is probably at a stage in production of about 1.5 years from completion...assuming the entire game is like this. Some leeway was given with the knowledge that it was shown on PC, but that wouldn't have an effect on a lot of the stuff shown, but would potentially remedy some graphical issues with different hardware.

In the end, I think this game is just way behind schedule, but MS is going to push it out the door instead of delay it. I think they need to delay it, regardless of if they use the CV excuse. But, with how much they put into making it an XSX launch title, it's probably not going to happen.

[neutralgamer1992]

If that was the case maybe someone should have told Phil not to oversell the event. Before sony's event did we hear from higher ups about hyping the event? Genuine question

If not than shut your mouth and let your actions speak because anytime Phil or another Xbox executive has spoken it's talking from both sides of their mouths and many times they are straight up not telling the truth

Same Phil said he was against paying for times exclusives yet here we are with phrase launch console exclusives. He was so against Sony paying yet he has paid Sega not to release a ps5 patch for Yakuza but just like Phil Xbox fanboys only have isssue when it's Sony doing it

Sony can get millions of more views and clicks and generate more hype simply by announcing/revealing new controller, they can generate more hype by simply having epic show demo and than once their event was over with all the momentum was once against around ps5. I am a huge Sony fan yet I even admit the show wasn't that great but when you competition sucks so badly you don't have to be on your A game

I have said this before and I will say this again for us as gamers it's great when both systems do well because these companies will have to go extra hard to earn our money and attention but it seems Ms is only worried about GP and by having titles be on GP many will simply be AA games and few will be AAA games

[AngelicIceDiamond]

"Same Phil said he was against paying for times exclusives yet here we are with phrase launch console exclusives. "

Phil's naive to think he can go a whole generation with getting 3rd party exclusives. Especially if the competition is doing it left and right.

"Ms is only worried about GP and by having titles be on GP many will simply be AA games and few will be AAA games"

Ever wild, Avowed, HB2, Forza, Fable H. I and clearly says otherwise that's more than a few AAA.

After looking at MS show again, they showed games that are at launch or launch windows and showed games that are years out. I'm more excited for those future titles. If MS never announced those that are a ways out then there's no long term investment in Xbox.

[neutralgamer1992]

Diamond

My point exactly 3rd party timed exclusives can't be avoided when your competition is doing them but at least competition isn't talking badly about Ms or Xbox while doing them. Please try to understand the points I am trying to make. I am not naive I know 3rd party timed exclusives are part of gaming industry(Sony did one recently with FF7)

But I am against me paying Sega not to release up updated version of Yakuza on ps5 because if either company starts paying for timer exclusives patches we are in for a ride awakening

I didn't say all their games would be AA I said few would still be AAA but Ms wants as many on GP we possible because they think quantity will help them gain subscriptions

There are very few defending Ms after their last event because it's not worth defending when head of your gaming division says they are ready after sony's show and yo show what they did afterwards how's that being ready

So far they have yet to show one game that shows the usage of XSX while Sony has shown that in action with ratchet and clank they chose a game that could really show some early benefits of next gen and Ms needs to find that one gam to showcase that. Sony's event in August could be the final blow if they reveal god of war and few other big games since Ms has no issues revealing stuff which is in pre production and us years away sony could theoretically do the same(once again Phil and Xbox fanbase was always against showing games early but not now since they clearly showed games which won't be ready for 3-4 years and I see Xbox fans praising) definition of hypocrisy

Phil has to be above the PR he is the head of the Xbox.

[fr0sty]

What a mess... when they have to do damage control over how bad their flagship game looked during its big reveal, that really does show how far behind they are in development of the current crop of XBSX games. I mean, granted, COVID19 has thrown a wrench in a lot of people's spokes, but Sony came correct, I don't see why MS can't.

[conanlifts]

That's just poor marketing if true. Why release a crap version of their star game. It should have been a priority or as you say labelled as such. Now I have concerns it will be released unfinished and flop as a result.

[syphon32]

exactly.. it's an early build but the game comes out in months.... I call bs..... they didn't get the response they hoped for and now are trying to walk it back.... they need to push it back to next year and give it the sonic movie treatment

[iagainsti120]

It was also PC footage as clarified by Microsoft.

[InUrFoxHole]

Watch this halo vid if you care to know more.
https://youtu.be/fq57vp2aHv...

[pitythefool]

So there’s a video with better graphics and they didn’t show it to the millions of potential customers but instead to a guy called HaloFollower.

For arguments sake say that’s true, that’s possibly even worse, incompetent would be an improvement.

[gravedigger]

Game will be launched with these graphics. Maybe something will be improved. But there is less than 4 months till launch, even less if you count gold status. Now is the time for removing bugs. People need to accept that this game was built with old hardware in mind despite 343 LOUDLY TOUTED : "Halo Infinite natively developed for the Series X"

https://www.reddit.com/r/Xb...

[-Foxtrot]

Hmmm I call bullshit

They had so much riding on this game, it was THE Xbox series X game that would sell us on Microsoft’s apparent new direction, the future of their first party studios and the console itself but they decided to show an old build which has now become a laughing stock online with many memes being made in such a short space of time.

Microsoft is not that stupid, this seems like a get out of jail card excuse to try and save their reputation.

They hyped this game and the event to the high heavens, why are people surprised they are being called out and laughed at when people see through their bullshit yet again

I don’t think the final version will look that different, it’s a build from the final 10-11 month stretch, it should look have looked / played fantastic in that early January build so I think this is just more PR speak

Not to mentioned they’d have put “early build” or “January 2020 Build” if it was, like I said they aren’t that stupid surely

[ColdSin]

I truly don't think this version of Halo Infinite was in development for so long. It seemed early in development (no effective post processing, no texture filtering, etc). FFS Halo 5 looks better. This game needs to be delayed. It is clear to me now that the development of this game wasn't going smoothly and they rebooted it in 2019 after the creative director left.

This downgrade from what was shown in 2018 is just too big to ignore.

[janus225]

The game will be on gamepass day 1! Shut up you''ll get it for nothing! Later u got some patch for the final version. And thinks to our revolutionnary technology "Smart delivery" the next gen version its for free! Life is beautiful isnt it?

[rainslacker]

I think Covid is a valid excuse to being behind in the game production. But even if we consider they didn't do anything for three months...which wasnt the case as many of their devs likely worked from home, which is limiting in production, but not completely pointless....I still saw a lot more than three months of work that needed to be done in the demo. I think even a year's time would require a lot of crunch to get it to what I would call a passable standard for current gen for a game of this scope, but that's not considering next gen.

As it is, I think the game needs to be delayed, and Covid probably is a valid reason to do so. But, unless the build they showed was from last year, it still means what they showed is probably going to be close to what's delivered, and all the technical issues shown aren't going to be remedied by watching it in 4K.

I also question if they'll fix any of the other things that people have pointed out with the actual objects in the game, as at this point, with so little time left before a final build, It's not reasonable to expect them to even attempt such a thing. They may be able to fix things like the texture pop-in, and maybe improve the lighting a bit, but the AI, poor objects and lackluster textures, crappy LOD's, poor shading effects, etc, are things that get fixed much sooner in development. What we saw is probably close to what we're getting.

Now, we're just at the point where MS is going to push it out the door, then try to fix it later. That may work for a game with a ten year plan, since they're looking to move this into the GaaS arena. But, if it fails out of the gate, it makes it much harder to be successful with that ten year plan. Halo does have some staying power though.

[jwillj2k4]

Stop it. They had 5 years before "covid" and this is all they have to show for it. All other studios are dealing with "covid" and they are able to polish up their games (no pop in, etc). Just stop it.

[Stanjara]

Its not like they depend on resources to be delivered, or their job makes them travel.
They have rigs at home and Azure cloud.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

"They had 5 years before "covid" and this is all they have to show for it. "

They bought those studios in 2018 not 2015. In 2 years you really expect to craft the next big ass AAA products? Anymore false information ppl wanna throw out there?

[Sunny_D]

343i themselves said that the one thing bad about E3 being cancelled was that it took away their spotlight of winning the show... That means they were confident with what they had and yet....

[ABizzel1]

@Angeliclce

I'm pretty sure he was talking about Halo Infinite having 5 years, since Halo 5 launched in 2015, and they were already planning to launch Infinite on current-gen sooner, then 2020 according to 343i.

[dietis_h]

that's not an excuse.

[rainslacker]

So what? Disrupting production isn't a valid excuse to delay the game? Has nothing to do with the fact that this game seems much more than 3 months behind schedule. I wasn't talking about excusing the presentation, I was talking about delaying the entire game's release.

Covid did disrupt a lot of productions, but it didn't stop them completely. Covid didn't have anything to do with them having a bad demo to show, nor were they tempering expectations with their comments before the show.

[Petebloodyonion]

@Rainslacler I mostly agree with you on this one
I suggest watching the digital Foundry analysis video they made after and they brought a couple of valid points

1) the game was originally conceive as an Xbox1 title and unfortunately there's no such thing as a magical next-gen button upgrade.
2)Unfortunately popping won't go away with new gen-console.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

in regard to the release date things do point out that MS will release the game and fix it after and honestly shame on them if they do pull out again Sea of Thieves kind of release.
If I was MS my solution would be like PubG where you release the game in early access at a cheaper price (pleasing your Halo fans /Xbox fan) or only on Gamepass .
This way MS could still make that important launch window and save face (mostly) for not delivering an optimal game.

[rainslacker]

I watched the DF video, and wish I could get that time in my life back. They weren't inaccurate in some of their comments, but they seemed to not be addressing the fact that a current gen AAA game shouldn't look like this, and that it, and despite it being a cross gen game, it didn't meet current gen standards on visuals for such things.

As far as the release date, I know what MS is going to do, but the question should be, should they delay it. I'm not a big fan of release now, fix later. It works out sometimes, but I tend to frown upon such things in general. Minor issues I can look past, but what was shown here was not minor issues.

[aconnellan]

I completely agree. Sure, E3 and other similar presentations are normally built as a vertical slice separate to the full game.

That said, nothing in this demo says “I’m going to launch in 4 months”.

I would *maybe* expect this from a demo last E3, and even then there should have been a much higher level of polish (pop-ins, dreadful lighting, etc)

[mkis007]

Ya no way they didnt try to go all out with what they had. Ray tracing might make it look better... but I dont think they should keep up with this 12tf unmatched power nonsense. I'd bet anything playstation studios will continue to have the most impressive exclusives into next gen. They do a lot more with less.

[porkChop]

How is it bullshit? Think about it. With covid everyone is working from home. That's hard enough when they're trying to have the game ready for launch day. If they had an older internal demo build, why spare the devs to create a new one? At least right now when they need to focus on finishing the game.

I'm sure they had planned on having a better demo ready for E3, but no one predicted covid having such an impact. A newer demo isn't worth the risk of not having your biggest franchise ready for your console launch.

[jwillj2k4]

343 has a lackluster history of delivering.
Everyone was told to wait for this show. 343 fails to deliver, the show fails to impress and now the excuses come. Why didn’t you say covid was a factor prior to the show?

This demo was their E3 build, ok I can buy that. this just means covid delayed this negative feedback.

Microsoft agreed that this is the build to showcase HALO for their XsX games show. No one forced them to do this so they get what they deserve.

This was Microsoft’s second chance to make a first impression. No more excuses, they were given a mulligan and bogeyed. Stop with the excuses.

All studios are dealing with covid. All studios will be held to the same scrutiny. If TLOU 3 was presented and looked like TLOU 1 there would be blood in the streets. Microsoft is being held accountable but can’t own up to their mistakes.

[chiefJohn117]

#Puddlegate
It's an old build rather you want to believe it or not

[IMissJimRyan]

They waited for the reaction of the people to then present an excuse.

Every game presented at shows and some time before launch is an old build. If the launch build was ready, the game would have already been released. And it takes a while to do the tralier, so the most current build is certainly not the one visible in the presentation.

The fact is: the game is limited by Xbox One, the 343i is a studio that has so far shown no service and Microsoft is stuck in a tangle of promises and lies that it cannot keep. This is the result. And keeping the lie needs more lies.

[rainslacker]

I know that for games that are releasing within a few months, when you see a live demo on stage, or even just some live demo streamed through marketing, especially when it's a game play showing, more often than not, you are seeing something that is very close to a final build. About the only changes that come up are refinement on lighting and sometimes performance. 3 months time is when bugs are being fixed, and optimizations are being done to whatever can get them in the time alloted, along with minor bug fixes. Hopefully by that point, major bugs are worked out. No new features are added at this point, and anything that didn't make it into the design from it's original design document are scrapped for the release.

They said they aren't putting ray-tracing in until after release, which leads me to believe that this build is probably from around the 6 month to launch point, which is typically when games go on code lock. Since they didn't have RT included yet, it was scrapped. Unfortunately, the rest of the lighting was also pretty lackluster.

[rainslacker]

Wow, 7 disagrees for what is common industry practice, and readily available to research for game production time lines.

Great to see that so many people know so much about game design, and I really hope that when this game is delivered, they are satisfied, and not just trying to find more excuses for why it isn't all that bad. Because that's what it's come to with MS....saying why things aren't really all that bad, instead of just being content and satisfied with their output.

[Stanjara]

I don't think Xone support is the problem.
They have Studio decisions problems in art direction, story, lv design, management.
That kills development time.
Also were wasting man power on MC collection for PC. It still isn't just right.

[Hakuoro]

Honestly I do video editing occasionally and I could make that presentation in an afternoon easily. So my question would be why would they use an old build to showcase their most important game?

This is just more lies from Microsoft. They are making excuses in order to make people think things will be different at launch. I'm sure some elements of the game will be polished but to act like those aren't the textures and geometry going into the game is just lies, in 3 months they aren't changing that much.

[aconnellan]

Sounds good - an afternoon is, what, 4-5 hours? Your comment is 15 hours old, so I’ll give you until it’s 20h old to report back with an equally-good looking gameplay presentation. Actually no - ‘that’ presentation. Because those were your words, so I expect that exact presentation

Catch you in a few hours, and looking forward to some awesome results!

[Stanjara]

Dude, Ytubers are making better production from home for years.

[tontontam0]

LOL that's just "RECORDED GAMEPLAY",

I could do that 8 minute "gameplay!!" presentation in 8 minutes.

are you going to tell me you need to do post processing on a "gameplay!!" video.

[RedDevils]

wow did he hurt your fanboy feeling?

[Critic4l_Strik3]

If you get all the videos that go into the presentation, and your only job is to stitch them together, then yes, its doable in 4-5hrs.

[KingKionic]

Yea i knew it was a earlier build after i saw the official gameplay trailer video on xbox

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Theres several parts in there that look better then parts in the official game play demo.

I was impressed by how big halo will be. Truly blown away still.

[Sherif129]

Wake up man.

[InUrFoxHole]

Bend a knee young one. The king is back. All hail 117!

[Mister_Wolf]

I’m a big halo fan dude, that showing was indefensible. How people are managing to make so many excuses is crazy. That wasn’t good enough, in fact it was heartbreaking because Halo is a game I have grown up with.

Last year was the time to show an early build, not this year.

And on top of that, they should’ve communicated it, IF it was an early build.

Lack of communication and poor communication undid this showing.

[seanpitt23]

Fanboyism is what that is because it makes you blind to the truth

[dietis_h]

step away from the spiked koolaid.

[SpaceRanger]

“ On top of being in a global pandemic and months away from a release, the gameplay that was shown is from an earlier build of the game.”

Lmao didn’t he try pulling this stunt with Crackdown “months away from release”. There’s no way they wouldn’t have shown the most up to date version. This was their show to win people over and they chose to show old PC footage?

I’m honestly surprised this guy still has a job. Like legitimately this is bad marketing overall.

[ColdSin]

Yeah, the marketing team at Xbox shit the bed. You have the most powerful console on your hand. SHOWCASE THAT. Give us a bullshot vertical slice that actually impresses (everybody seems to do that these days anyways). They just needed to make the game look like that 2018 trailer. They failed miserably.

[Stanjara]

Developers don't have it.
That PC build still has to be ported to Series X, and then be optimized.
Oh yeah...multiplayer...balance testing and beta testing...bugs pffffffffff.

[Hellcat2020]

This is another Crackdown 3 but this time for the series X

[Dissidia]

You’re being excessive

[Hellcat2020]

Flashback to that 2018 E3 trailer and compare the graphics shown in 2018 to what you seen yesterday and come back and tell me I’m being excessive

[Dissidia]

I watched and came back. You’re still being excessive.

[russo121]

Just proves you need urgently medical care and a visit to an ophthalmologist.

[King_Noctis]

So what happen when it scores higher than Crackdown 3?

[_dangerclose_]

What happens when it scores lower?

[King_Noctis]

"What happens when it scores lower?"

Crackdown 3 score 54% on Metacritic. You think Halo Infinite will score 53%?

[RaidenBlack]

So is BugSnax. It shows an earlier build for the trailers.
It's supposed to come out for PS7.

[stuna1]

Bugsnax isn't a flagship title! Stop trying to control the damage, because this brush fire has turned into an all out inferno.

[RaidenBlack]

Oh crap. I wasn't damage controlling.
I am just poking fun at this multi-million dollar disappointment of a game.
Xbox-fanatics were picking up on BugSnax for being present at the PS5 showcase event.
Hence I retorted MS's damage control statement by stating the same thing can be said for BugSnax too. We were seeing an early build of BugSnax also.
I actually don't happen to like seeing people making derogatory comments about indie-titles.
The wording for my above comment might have come out wrong. NO edit option now, it seems.

[Kavorklestein]

Inferno?
C'mon dude it's a game it's not that big of a deal. They should probably just delay Halo, and get the Coalition and Maybe some artists from a few other studios to help direct their visual approach and tech. I think if this wasn't supposed to be a Launch title, it wouldn't be such a big deal. Either way the solution is more important to me than the mistake.
Crysis 1 remaster looked ass too. They are delaying it.
MS should do the same for Halo if Necessary.

[Stanjara]

If BugSnax had half a billion budget I would be pissed.

[badz149]

@RaidenBlack

so...Halo is in the same league as Bugsnax now? oh how the mighty have fallen

[RaidenBlack]

Actually Bugsnax is being made by Octodad devs, Young Horses.
Atleast Octodad had hilarious moments.
Whatever 343 has done till now, is bland and boring.

[Ratchet75]

Love that song though
"it s bugsnax, bugsnax"
😉😉

[Mister_Wolf]

Not the same thing dude.

[talocaca]

More excuses and empty promises 😍

Can't wait for another generation of Microsoft doing this 👏👏👏

(They blew it....this was their second chance to impress with Series X gameplay and they failed)

[CaptainObvious878]

"More excuses and empty promises"

This has been MS's mo for the last 3 generations and it's clear they will continue for the next generation. We haven't even started next gen and the lies and damage control media peices are already coming think and fast.

If it's shame of me for getting fooled after the second time (xbox 360 support ending halfway through the gen), what do you call it if I get fooled for a 4th time?

Who in their right mind would get an xsx at this point over a ps5?

[Deathdeliverer]

Game comes out in less than 5 months. Most likely about 4 months and some change away. Get tf outta here. And adding ray tracing as a patch?! Please call a spade a spade for ONCE. This isn’t almost a year away. Or years away. This is around the corner.

[sin7279]

Damage control!

[derek]

Greenbergs not helping here. He's trashing his own studios efforts and falsely suggesting a newer version is coming that will look substantially different. Microsoft exec's just won't shut up, they behave like rank amateurs.

[Ratchet75]

For those who says that Halo infinite is a open world and that's the reason for the average graphics, I say to them look at what Rockstar did with RDR2.
They have done it with half of Halo infinite's budget.

[Gamble20]

I get your point and agree open world isn’t a good excuse, but I’m quite confident RDR2 had an excessively high budget.

[talocaca]

At least we don't have to worry about a downgrade 😅

[stuna1]

And I'm Buck Rogers from the 25th Century! Think people, Microsoft is known to lie, plus why would you put your flagship ip on display to start your presentation when it could set the direction of the entire presentation by derailing it.

They already were busted in a lie when the credits said shown running on Series X hardware, then later it gets retracted and it's reported as running on PC!? Come on now you all can't keep falling for the same things, especially when they're constantly being done.

[RauLeCreuset]

A flat out lie or a deceptive truth?

"So, what’re seeing today, and I can tell you because we see check-in builds every week, and they [343 Industries] made progress week after week."

Let's say MS had 343 put together something a month before the show. This is their big flagship title that is going to be featured at length. They want to have it in time to properly prepare for the show. They're also still seeing these check-in builds every week. Is it technically lying in that case to say the game was an "earlier" build, even if there is no significant difference between the build shown and the current build?

What it is, is deception. It's a good idea to pay as much attention to what isn't said when a guy like Greenberg speaks. What he didn't say was how much earlier of a build what was shown is compared to the current build. Most importantly, I didn't hear him indicate that the current build is significantly better than the build we were shown.

[Deathdeliverer]

That’s true Rau. Technically if the show was put together yesterday and was worked on today it’s an older build. Anytime ANY game that hasn’t been released yet disappoints, this deceptive tactic could be deployed. It isn’t a lie per se, but it isn’t being transparent either. It just stands out more because of how soon the game releases.

[Charal]

Plain BS here, for sure the demo is not from the final build, optimisation is ongoing but core graphical assets will not change from what we have seen.

This is the worst comment XBox team could made, especially with no screenshot of current release to back this up.

Once again Xbox fans are treated like idiots by the company they support.

And where is Spencer now? We heard from him 2 times a days for 2 weeks before the show, now he has disappeared.
These guys are jokes.

[SCW1982]

It’s like they think we are 14 year old kids when the main demographic is people in early 30’s. We know how the industry works at this point. This games in trouble from a technical standpoint.

[GamingSinceForever]

You almost have to believe him because it looked just that bad. Shame on MS for showing it when they knew it wasn’t ready.

Greenberg is FOS talking about the quality over a stream when we’ve seen plenty of other games look better across streams.

[CaptainObvious878]

I gota say, It's very refreshing to see the vast majority of people in this thread see Greenburgs deceptive damage control for what it is.

Even some of the moderate ms fans are seeing the truth.

[Traecy]

So why didn't they show the latest build knowing it'll be released in 4 months. Something is not right or someone is lying.

[_dangerclose_]

Well its Greenberg so............................ .......

[Rhythmattic]

Well its Ms....... so.......

[OMNlPOTENT]

It just doesn’t make sense why they’d use such an early build for such a pivotal moment. The big reveal is supposed to be a huge defining moment. Unfortunately that’s the moment that will define Halo Infinite before launch, could even sway a decent amount of sales.

[Rachel_Alucard]

He never states the visuals will be improved. The build may be old but the underlying problems like the flat textures and just overall look are never changing. This article is just reporting on PR nonsense.

[jznrpg]

Sorry MS I don’t believe you

[_dangerclose_]

So the game is due out in a few months and they chose to show an "earlier build" at a very important and pivotal show, yeah I call BS. The only truth in this statement is that they're acknowledging it looked bad if they weren't they wouldn't be making this statement.

[Stanjara]

Damage control PR wright on time.
Even Gold build is old, cause you get one day patch.
You know what would saved this?

IF Greanberg said that was a competitive 120fps mode...we are playing with that option on.

I would be like ok...ok...I see it ...I understand.

[Ratchet75]

Half a billion spent, more than 2000

[Ratchet75]

3 months before launch they show pre-alpha footage?
That makes absolutely no sense.
If I was Bill Gates, I would ask where the reported $500 millions budget for that game was spent on. 🤔🤔

[ElementX]

Bill Gates isn't connected to Microsoft anymore. He certainly doesn't run anything at Microsoft. He may be on the board but I think he left that

[Traecy]

500 million dollars was not spent on what was displayed Thursday,if so the game would look way better than what was shown.

[Ratchet75]

That's your answer?
So you re telling me that 3 months before launch, all you have to show to the public is pre alpha footage and you re ok with it?
😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂

[jairusmonillas]

$500 millions were spent on ninja and shroud and mixer LOL

[Knushwood Butt]

'No regrets'.

[chiefJohn117]

ROFL he said Bill Gates 😂 you totally lost and confused

[SpartanYalo]

Why would you showcase the most expensive game ever created with an early bugged build? Makes absolutely no sense.

[TheTony316]

Been hearing excuses from MS and hardcore Xbox fanboys since 2013. Wasn't this supposed to be their big Series X showpiece? That one game that would make PS5 games look like shit and take full advantage of the Series X? Turns out it can't even keep up with TLOU2. This game launches within the next 5 months btw. It won't look much better than what we saw.

[pitythefool]

Got some bridges for sale if anyone’s interested.

[Father__Merrin]

Wow what damage control. If no one had pulled greenburg up he wouldn't have said that

[Bathyj]

So he's blaming the stream, old build and covid 19?

Jesus Aaron, you're so crap at your job.

Oh and wasn't this running on PC? Article says otherwise.

[RauLeCreuset]

He was throwing anything at the wall he could get his hands on to see what would stick.

[Bathyj]

Then he should just cook spaghetti, I bet he likes that.

[hayden3]

Showing a pc footage in a console games showcase, and doing the worse version at that.. What the hell were you thinking ms?

[1nsomniac]

No it clearly was the latest version as otherwise it would of been noted. They also did a Q&A with journalists after and it was not discussed then either. This is simply PR damage control.

However the stream quality made it look far, far worse than it actually was. Check Digital Foundry they talk about this and they actually have the proper 4k60fps showcase in full and the entire presentation looks 100x better. Shockingly so. Microsoft really dropped the ball here releasing a really poor stream to showcase their new hardware.

It still doesn’t look good enough but it looks far better than what the original stream was. The difference is night and day between the two. Destiny 2 showing still looks better and that’s a 4 year old game engine from this gen.

[Bathyj]

Yeah it looks better in 4k but still not as good as some current Gen games. DF want really impressed even with the 4k. This should have blown us out of the water. MS have been touting how many Mike drop moments they would have. I didn't see one.

[Einhander1971]

Why show an early build at a reveal so important. Practically commercial suicide, and that's exactly what's happened. Personally I don't think it was an early build, they just hoped that everyone would suck it up!! It backfired. Now its oh its not finished yet.

[Einhander1971]

Oh and another thing gamers questioned Nintendo when they pulled the plug on Metroid 4. Least they had the balls to pull development and start again.

[ForwardDude]

You don't add mountain texture in a open world game at the last minute. That's too huge a task. The single player story will be an after thought like Halo 5 was we all need to admit it. The game gonna be multiplayer only with DLC maps release every 3-4 months so 343 can make some money since every intelligent Xbox fan has bought 3 years of Xbox live and converted it to Gamepass for 1$ in 2019.

[Mister_Wolf]

MS and 343 should absolutely have stated this. I’m sure they understand how big this game is for this system, for MS, and really ultimately for 343. Because I think generally this is last chance saloon for them.

I think regardless of how this turns out 343 needs to work on something non halo related. Halo should be put on ice after this.

I feel that 343 are constantly in Bungie’s shadow when they make Halo. I would love for them to build a new IP.

[iagainsti120]

The game play was also captured on a PC. Low poly models, tons of pop in of assets, low texture resolutions, and no post processing. I am not impressed. Is this what we should expect from Xbox series x? This may be the result of cross gen game support on the series x ans x1x. I forgot to mention that the animations are subpar as well.

[Pancit_Canton]

It seems like they are waiting for more gamepass subscribers to fund this game.

The more suckers invest on game pass, the higher their rewards get.
One million more subscribers, you guys unlocked new build demo from 2019.
Two million more subscribers, you guys get raytracing.
Three million more subscribers, you guys get 4K/60
Gamepass is a kickstarter for M$ loyal sucker fans

[ufo8mycat]

Microsoft and their studios are never about pushing graphics. XB1X was more powerful then the PS4 Pro, yet there are 5 games on the Pro that look better then any exclusive on XB1X. Having said that, the graphics here are pretty bad, even for Xbox standards.

That is the least of Microsofts concerns. If what they showed, game wise, during their presentation, we may be seeing another generation where there is no reason to buy an Xbox - No great games

[tochi]

OK. So they are hopeless idiots or pathological liars.
Which one do you think is better?

No difference.
Because no one buy anything from hopeless idiots or pathological liars.

[jznrpg]

Right .. they could have easily posted a Short video today but they didn’t

[Yodasfavoritesoda]

Obviously! Still looked amazing!!!!! Easily the best looking next gen game we have seen to date

[Nexus530]

Then why show it in a presentation that's supposed to be selling your new console that lands in a few months?

That showing has convinced me not to rush out and buy XSX on day one because what's the point? Everything they showed (which was underwhelming at best) I'm gonna be able to play on my XB1X.

I cant help but think this direction MS is going in will be suicide for them. And before any of you dumb twats come at me with the fanboy shit, I literally have the money set aside to buy both consoles and had all intention of doing so. Until now.

[TechnoGoat]

Typical damage control. the game is a few months away. And why the hell wouldn't you use newer footage?

[seanpitt23]

This was to sell the Xbox brand why would they do that! I really do question who runs Microsoft they do themselves no favours.. halo looked bad you can’t argue against it this is not the future of gaming this looked barely current Gen.... Sony is literally laid down feet up in the air laughing so hard..

We need competition we don’t want Sony to get complacent we need the industry to push forward but Sony is just just winning this one horse race time and time again

[BehindTheRows]

If Sony is winning this one horse race and giving us what they’re giving us, then they don’t need Xbox. And it’s true, they don’t. Before it, we got the PS1 and a full year of the PS2.

Competition, yes, but I’d prefer someone like SEGA, who actually put forth the effort!

[chiefJohn117]

No let the people have their fun some memes was actually funny. In touch Halo fans already knew it was from earlier builds. I tried to tell y'all but ya wouldn't listen....again. I told y'all I have sources if I say something about any game or platform that I say is a fact or don't say imo, believe it cause it was inside knowledge.

[dietis_h]

not even you can defend this crap.

[chiefJohn117]

Defend what? I fully under the complaints, I personally more focused on the gameplay plus actually informed about know what the current build look like. So while you guys crying about current gen graphics I'm wondering about how the grapple gun will be balanced and if it's in multiplayer. If Prometheans are still in the game, etc you know actual important stuff for my enjoyment of the game. We all love great graphics Hellblade 2 had me going woooow (0.0) but that's not my focus with Halo them getting the campaign right after Halo 5 and seeing if certain mechanics are in or out that divided the halo community is my #1. I'll worry graphics in with the final build.

[IRetrouk]

Full of it

"While this is just a section of the final game, it took a herculean effort to make sure this little corner of our Ringworld was polished and pretty enough for its premiere!"

https://www.343industries.c...

That's far from an old build🤷‍♂️

[Psychotica]

Still the same old crap. I was bored of it within 30 seconds as soon as saw those little midget characters with their shields throwing grenades.

[chiefJohn117]

Midget characters ROFLMAO 😆 if you don't play Halo why TF are you here? That's like me going into a thing about Mario and going "same old crap jumping on turtles" lol

[Psychotica]

What makes you think I have never played it before? Just because I don't know the official name of the character types?

[chiefJohn117]

If you don't know the enemies then you clearly don't play. It's like say you play football but don't know the passer is called a quarterback lol. you obviously don't play. Nobody that actually play halo would make such a stupid statement. You're not fooling anyone

[Psychotica]

I don’t play now you’re right, I never said otherwise. I haven’t played for years because it’s repetitive crap

[Hellcat2020]

Announcement coming in 5-4-3-2-1
Hello gamers we have some unfortunate news today regarding Halo Infinite, we will be delaying the game due to uncertain circumstances and we deeply apologize but we can guarantee that we will give you the best Halo game to date when it releases in fall of 2023

[leejohnson222]

Sure it was, nice damage control

[medman]

Aaron Greenberg should be fired.

[leoms]

Damage control activated.

[Max_Eckhardt]

What an embarrassment!

[Npugz7]

Lol sure! Good save!

[xetiro]

For me it seems that Microsoft Xbox division is not in the business for the tradicional console first-party AAA high-quality development anymore.

With Xbox and Xbox 360 they really tried to compete with PlayStation and tried to be in the tradicional console market. With Xbox One they lost their direction and with XSX it is also a different direction now.

Microsoft new business model for gaming is the Xbox Game Pass and so they will support their "15" studios for AA development to feed "first-party" games into the Xbox Game Pass, à lá Netflix Originals. Also, after this generation, there will probably be no reason for another Xbox hardware as Microsoft will be more comfortable than ever to continue the Game Pass on the Windows PC world.

The AAA => AA is the trade-off to make a service like Game Pass viable in the long run. It's quantity in sacrifice of quality. That's why Halo Infinite is presented like it was. Studios like Turn 10 lost their edge, that's why they were not ready to show anything concrete. Fable is teased with a CGI because there is nothing to show too. And all other games, even the more impressive ones like the The Medium, the character animation is at AA level.

I personally prefer much more the Playstation model of state-of-the-art AAA games + PS Plus that offers a value of more then $800 per year in game content that belongs to you as a subscribed user.

[LucidIllusion]

I knew something had to be said about that showing.

[iplay1up2]

I was disappointed, but will wait for more gameplay video of Series X upgraded games. Halo looked pretty rough. It looked like an upgraded 360 game.

[Father__Merrin]

Damn the grunt memes are all over the Internet they will never go away. Feel sorry for 343i they worked so hard

[BenRC01]

No it wasn't. Damage control, xboxs biggest department lol.

[Redlife2g]

Buh Buh Buh 12 Terra flops! 😂

[waverider]

The main problem Was the 12 teraflop pr, the faster ssd pr, the power card since december. Gamers were waiting for wow factor. Its gonne. This event and halo Was the Ace of microsoft, but it failed. There zero hype and comparing to the ps5 event.... This is damage control. The game is coming in four months. The problem Was Phil spencer bragging and downplaying the ps5 event... Now.... I will say again he better hope that the august event of Sony is a lie, because if some of the rumors are true...

[NVMGaiden]

So basically they have a whole 12 months between modeling that character and the finished product. Im gonna play devils advocate and say this is puddle gate part 2, just saying.

[Critic4l_Strik3]

Why show an old build of a major launch title which is coming out in 3 months time? It was a terrible idea to do that. Werent you supposed to show a close to final/final build at this big reveal event?

[quenomamen]

Then why put out ? It’s suppose to be your big game, the one that is associated with your console and this is what you released ?

[Gameplayer1]

Ok,rule number 1 NEVER,EVER show something from an older build especially if you're suppose to show a glimpse of the future,how stupid can a company be?? I'm completely out of the Xbox community (thank god) but this is plain fu**edupness.

[cell989]

Like I’m gonna believe anything that clown says .....

[IRetrouk]

🤔

"While this is just a section of the final game, it took a herculean effort to make sure this little corner of our Ringworld was polished and pretty enough for its premiere!"

https://www.343industries.c...

[Pyrofire95]

And all pictures of me are from when I was younger.

[ECHOINFINITY]

Why the hell would you choose to show old gameplay footage of your biggest IP to kick off a new gen? Xbox is bottom tier, always have been and show no signs of changing it any time soon. How anyone could believe Xbox has ever held a candle to playstation blows my mind.

[QuePasa87]

Or was it? hmmm

[Apex13]

No point in saying this now. Xbox fans gave the a second chance after the dismal first showing and then they F’ed up after the second outing after Sony showed them the way.

[ForwardDude]

Ray tracing after release tell me THE badge ( optimized for Series X ) is just marketing. Isn't ray tracing a feature 343i should be optimizing the game on before launch for THE badge to be true?

[tagzskie]

damegi contorolu

[bahabeast]

Excuses already. Wow.

[Ninver]

Sounds like damage control to me. All the pro ms websites are showing their bias right now. Its hilarious.

[Lilrizky]

Game has been in the works in 5 years, comes out in less than 6 months and they didn't have a newer build than the one they showed? Ok

[Spenok]

Damage control.