Halo Infinite’s store page could point to surprise early multiplayer release

Microsoft could be planning a surprise early release for Halo Infinite’s free-to-play multiplayer mode.

That’s according to date references found in the source code for the game’s official store page. Twitter user Adam Fairclough discovered on Friday that the page contained multiple uses of the date November 15, 2021 and the time 18:00.

These dates are used with the reference ‘PreOrderReleaseDate’.

This roughly matches the time when Microsoft is set to hold a special 20^th anniversary Xbox live stream. Microsoft has previously said it won’t announce any games during Monday’s event, but urged fans to tune in.

Shortly after the website date was published, Microsoft seemingly updated Halo Infinite’s store page to change it to the game’s release date of December 8.

Having originally been scheduled for release in November 2020 as an Xbox Series X/S launch title, Halo Infinite will now be released for consoles and PC on December 8, 2021.

Halo Infinite’s campaign will be released alongside the game’s free-to-play multiplayer component.

As part of the recent Halo Infinite technical preview, players got the chance to test its 4v4 Arena battles and 12v12 Big Team Battle contests.

It was recently claimed that Halo Infinite will be getting an Early Access bundle and multiple DLC packs.

Aggiornamenti Lumia, who regularly reports on listings that are added to the Xbox and Windows stores before they’re published, noted that a new listing for an Early Access Digital Bundle was added to the store, which included Halo Infinite as part of it.

The Early Access store listing is currently entirely blank apart from the text “Early Access Digital Bundle”, but if valid it marks the first indication of a plan to allow some Halo Infinite players to start playing before the game’s release date.