343 Industries Denies Desire To Drop 'Halo Infinite' From Xbox One

After a week wherein an insider claimed that 343 Industries was considering dropping “Halo Infinite” for Xbox One, a spokesperson for the developer has refuted the claim.

343 community manager John Junyszek denied the talk and called them “fake leaks,” reports Video Games Chronicle. “We’re seeing lots of fake 'leaks' out there, so please don’t believe everything you read,” he wrote on Twitter.

“There are no plans to change our 2021 release or the devices and platforms we’ll be supporting. We’re building Halo Infinite to be the best it can be on each device/platform,” Junyszek added.

Just last week, a credited insider claimed that 343 Industries was struggling behind the scenes to achieve adequate performance with “Halo Infinite” on Xbox One. This led to the developer considering making the shooter a next-gen console-only title following its recent release delay to 2021.

The insider also claimed that Xbox parent company Microsoft had not ruled out pushing "Halo Infinite" beyond 2021 if it felt the game would benefit. Microsoft confirmed that “Halo Infinite” would not launch with the Xbox Series X during the holiday season and has been delayed to next year.

The gameplay revelation of “Halo Infinite” was met with widespread criticism and scorn from media and fans, highlighting issues with the title’s art direction and the seeming lack of advancement of the game since the most recent edition of the “Halo” series.

Responding to the criticism, 343 Industries acknowledged it and told fans it was taking feedback very seriously. After last week’s rumor that “Halo Infinite” would not release on Xbox One, many fans actually reacted positively to it.

A few weeks ago, after the initial news about the game’s delay to 2021 had broken, Microsoft executive vice-president for Gaming Phil Spencer apologized for not hitting expectations while saying that the delay was the right decision for Xbox and 343 Industries.

“Let me start just by recognizing the fans and the fact that it is a bummer,” Spencer told Gary Whitta’s “Animal Talking” Twitch show. “It is disappointing to people, it’s disappointing to us. We were looking forward to the alignment of ‘Halo Infinite’ and the Xbox Series X.”

He added: “In the end, I have to make the right decision. The strength of the Halo franchise — the health and ability of the team… are things tracking toward the quality of where you want the game?”

Among the revelations Spencer discussed was that the team of 343 Industries’ Bonnie Ross and Xbox Game Studios’ Matt Booty considered breaking “Halo Infinite” into sections and releasing them at different dates.