Halo Infinite Could Be Launching Its Multiplayer Next Week According To New Findings

In anticipation for the month-long wait of Halo Infinite being less than four weeks away, fans grow excited to get new information on the newest entry in the series. Already arranged by Microsoft & 343 Industries, the campaign and multiplayer will act independent of one another: while the single-player will be sold for full price, the matchmaking is to be administered as a free-to-play model instead. While the original demonstration for the story campaign left players underwhelmed and even worried in regards to how the game will launch, 343 Industries recently presented a preview for the story mode which illustrates promising insight for that segment of the game. For online elements though, it is left worrisome since the game studio did confirm co-op campaign & Forge Mode are not included in the launch version of the game. While the features are promised to be added in a free update post-launch, it is not the most reassuring for excited players. What is more interesting is at the start of the month a leak for ‘Halo Infinite Early Access Digital Bundle’ surfaced on the Microsoft Store. The finding hints at the game potentially shipping ahead of its promised December release date. What makes things more intriguing in regards to Halo Infinite is claims for the multiplayer to launch ahead of story mode now. On Twitter, @halodotapi lists the ‘Heroes of Reach’ season to arrive on November 15. Even more, another user @NatetheHate2 claims the post to be accurate with certainty that the portion of the game is arriving next week. “I can independently confirm & share with you today that Halo Infinite multiplayer will be made available on Monday, November 15,” the user writes in the quote tweet. Elsewhere in a separate tweet from The Verge’s Tom Warren, searching Halo Infinite reveals the release date for the game to be slated for November 15th as well. However, there is uncertainty on if that is for the full game or just the multiplayer portion. Additionally, @EvilBoris dug through the data cache for the Xbox Store which reveals the date “2021-11-15” to be referenced in two lines from the discovery. For Halo Infinite’s history over the past year, there has been mention of the game arriving in portions rather than a full version. While this was later denounced in a separate statement, Xbox lead Phil Spencer did rekindle the possibility later on which does open eyes towards this possibility for online to arrive next week. As you can put together, November 15 happens to be the official birthday for Xbox. This year, that also signifies 20 years since the start of the platform. Microsoft announced to be hosting an Anniversary Livestream for then. You can read the full report by heading here. Do you believe Halo Infinite will launch come component of itself next week or no?

Project Midnight & Project Pentiment Are The Next Reported Titles In Xbox Game Studios’ Pipeline From Compulsion Games And Obsidian Entertainment

Undoubtedly, the ongoing reports for Xbox Game Studios projects are beginning to get overwhelming as the number of them is fading into obscurity. While we have billboard releases still underway for 2021, next year is appearing to be a large opportunity for Microsoft. So far, Avowed is paved for 2022 along with high hopes of Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga to launch then as well. Recently, a piece from Windows Central expands on Avowed with the game’s combat system and RPG elements to reel in anticipation from The Outer World players. But, there is other projects worth noting. Such as Project Belfry from The Banner Saga team Stoic Studios. Not to mention Project Shaolin which is in collaboration with rap group Wu-Tang Clan to produce the score for the AAA action RPG. Even Project Cobalt & Project Indus draws some opened eyes for what will later be for the Xbox platform in the coming future. A new report from Windows Central discloses more work that is aimed for Xbox hardware. Firstly, Project Midnight from developer Compulsion Games. While it was certain a new game is underway, the last details that arose from the studio is its relocating to a more spacious worksite. Details on Project Midnight references a unique twist on southern United States with a mix of fantasy attributes injected into the title. Jez Corden explains the game to implement “southern gothic” design to set the tone for the new game. Unsettling alike previous work, Project Midnight will also todl be be a “coming of age” tale with a very “strong” story to back that. Additionally, Obsidian Entertainment also has another game in the woodwork – Project Pentiment. Derived from the titling for the project name, the title is said to be set during the 16th century casted as an investigator searching for answers of an inhuman murder. From GamesBeat’s Jeff Grubb, he corroborates the claim adding that Disco Elysium holds some inspiration for the new game. In that, you can accuse characters in-game which could drastically impact how the story proceeds. While still an RPG at heart, dialogue options will be how you shape the experience with combat not being the strong suit this time around. More exciting is this project is said to be aimed for a release next year. What new projects are you most excited for? Source: Windows Central

Report: Obsidian Entertainment’s Avowed To Satisfy The Outer Worlds Fans With Combat System & RPG Mechanics

Part of the Microsoft roadmap laid out for its first-party releases delivered by Xbox Game Studios, the impact already shakes the surface with Forza Horizon 5 this month. And with Halo Infinite in December as well, fans are surely interested what is to follow these two juggernauts entering 2022 and beyond. For one, there is a lineage of rumors floating across the industry currently. In a string of claims from Windows Central and GamesBeat’s Jeff Grubb, Microsoft is eagerly expanding its arms to second-party developers to work on unique IPs for Xbox. Namely, Project Shaolin from BrassLion Entertainment to work on a Wu-Tang AAA Action RPG title. Additionally, these statements also expand upon InXile Entertainment’s next title under the moniker Project Cobalt which has been signified previously by the team to be an FPS role-playing game. However, Obsidian Entertainment already announced two properties for the Xbox pipeline: Avowed & The Outer Worlds 2. While the first is confirmed to be unique to the platform, Microsoft reportedly helmed publishing for the sequel prior to the announcement. From Windows Central, however, fans of the original The Outer Worlds are to be excited for the Avowed. “If The Outer Worlds was Obsidian’s take on a Fallout-style game, Avowed is undoubtedly Obsidian’s take on The Elder Scrolls, Windows Central’s Jez Corden writes. In the piece, he explains to witness work-in-progress captures of the game in a pre-alpha state and leaves with a lasting impression to be excited for more. Not only for being a Pillars of Eternity fan, but for his time with The Outer Worlds also grows excitement for Avowed. Specifically in the gameplay, it is said it will find the combat system to be what is to pitch anticipation for the title’s projected release next year. For a fantasy setting, the game is to feature tangible weapon combat alongside conjuring spells. This is said to expand across a class system for different builds as well as coinciding with two-handed combat for aforementioned play types – that includes archers as well with a bow & arrow. Previously, @klobrille co-signed a string of claims for the new Avowed to be a better version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It is to incorporate a faction system that affects the core gameplay and a “denser” impact to the world compared to the 2011 release. Corden also expands the new game and is way more vibrant in terms of the used engine compared to the latter. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you interested for more details about Avowed? Avowed is listed to release sometime in 2022 for Xbox Series X|S and PC. Source: Windows Central

New Findings For Max Payne Trilogy, Rockstar Games Legacy Titles, And More Coming To Xbox Backwards Compatibility Soon

Although Microsoft was accustomed to appraising legacy titles from Xbox 360 and later Original Xbox for the Xbox One years ago, that initiative has squandered thanks to the new console generation. However, there has been remarks that the project would resume with internal investigations to offer more classic titles to the lineup for new hardware – as per Director of Program Management Jason Ronald then. More recently, however, speculation is said to be addressed come this Monday for the Xbox 20th anniversary celebration. At the time, TrueAchievements reports more than a handful of titles will be supported from Original Xbox. Later on Microsoft scheduled a celebratory livestream slated for November 15 later this month. Now ahead of the presentation for next week, Xbox users online have discovered an onslaught of titles from older hardware being listed online. Those titles include Max Payne and notable Rockstar Games entries as well. User @brunocosta1_ provided the list which you can read below: Dead or Alive 1 Dead or Alive 2 Dead or Alive 3 Manhunt Max Payne 1 Max Payne 2 Oddworld: Munch’s Odyssee Red Dead Revolver Star Wars: Clone Wars Star Wars: Episode III Thrillville  More exciting is a finding from @PastorXbox who shares Max Payne 3 also is listed on the Xbox 360 store once more. So that includes the entire trilogy propped up by Remedy Entertainment & Rockstar Games. Other users in the thread discover that purchasing these new listings is possible already if signed-in through the Xbox 360 storefront. The listings are not available for purchase on the current marketplace. The recent finding does somewhat corroborate with the previous claims for the new roster coming to Xbox backwards compatibility. At least, Dead or Alive 3 was an aforementioned title then, But, of course, take these leaks as such and wait until Microsoft properly announces its plans for the project. What titles are you hoping to get the Xbox backwards compatibility treatment?

Bright Memory: Infinite Launches Today For PC

While many believe the Xbox 20/20 Showcase back in May last year to be a setback in anticipation for the Xbox Series X with the presentation of the event, the show did introduce the industry to many anticipated titles that are still awaited to release later on in the coming future. To kick off the show, solo-developer FYDQ-Studio featured Bright Memory: Infinite then. In summary, the announcement towers over the previous Bright Memory game as it finds several graphical overhauls alongside a promised Xbox Series X version to be delivered at a later date. On Xbox already, the original Bright Memory received a port for the platform. However, Bright Memory: Infinite was projected to launch later in 2021 for its listed platforms. On Friday, FYDQ-Studio and publisher Playism officially launches Bright Memory: Infinite – for PC that is. The console version is still in development. You can watch the launch trailer in the video below: “We want to send a massive thank you to everyone who has been eagerly waiting for the game to be released,” the team expresses in a Steam post for the game’s launch. “We’re confident that you will absolutely love this title, which combines the FPS and action genres to deliver an epic experience like none other.” In terms of other promising titles that are marketed for Xbox hardware, Exomecha is another awaited property slated to arrive later on. Previously, the developer announced that its will be shipping the game next year. Originally, August 2021 was projected before shelving that release for the following year. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you interested to get your hands on Bright Memory: Infinite; listed for Xbox Series X|S. Source: Steam

Panic Pushes Playdate Shipments Due To Unfulfilling Battery Life, First Increment Now Promised For Early 2022

Although niché hardware comes and goes as time proceeds, Panic plans to leave a lasting impression with the Playdate. Not only is the device come with a crank to play your games, but it also is to ship with an extensive lineup of properties and software as part of its post-launch campaign. Previously the team pressed there will be a fill lineup of titles for Season 1 when the Playdate is delivered. Additionally, Panic this past July launched pre-orders for the Playdate and those lucky enough to get into the first two groups of 20,000 units will find the hardware to ship sometime in late 2021. As for those that paid later on, promised pre-orders leading up to the 50,000th Playdate will not ship until 2022 the team tells. However, all projected release windows are now being ushered to a later time frame due to technical setbacks by the internal battery. According to an ‘Playdate’s Owner Update’ email, the batteries that were shipped to the warehouse in California were discovered to be ineffective in holding a charge. Now, the first shipment of devices is aimed for early 2022. As our first 5,000 finished Playdate units arrived at our warehouse in California for 2021, we began to test a few of them. We quickly became concerned that some of them weren’t giving us the battery life we expected. Playdate’s battery is designed to last a very long time, and always be ready for you, even if not used for a while. But that was not the case: in fact, we found a number of units with batteries so drained, Playdate wouldn’t power on at all — and couldn’t be charged. That’s a battery worst-case scenario. This quickly turned into a months-long, all-hands-on-deck research stress-ball, and we halted production at the factory. The conclusion? We made the difficult, expensive decision to replace all of our existing batteries with brand new ones, from a totally different battery supplier. It was extra frustrating, because when we built our Developer Preview units, the exact same type of batteries worked just fine — but something, somewhere (we’re researching) changed between then and now, and the new ones did not work just fine. We have no time to waste, so we’re moving on. And so, we shipped 5,000 finished Playdates back to Malaysia to be given new batteries. How did that feel? Not great!!! The good news: we’ve already received the new batteries from the new supplier, and they’re looking really impressive — they’re exactly what we’re hoping for, if not even better than before. We’re extremely confident the new supplier can give Playdate the battery life we designed, and you deserve. And there’s one huge silver lining: we’re extremely glad that we found this potential issue before shipping you a Playdate. In just a few weeks, factory production will ramp up to full speed again, with new batteries in place. They’ll be put in all units, even those we’ve already made. But, it does mean “Late 2021” units are now “Early 2022”. Panic goes on to press the long-ongoing chip shortage affecting markets across the globe by revealing it has designated a new CPU to replace the original to meet the demand for the Playdate. “Maybe you’ve heard about the ‘global chip shortage’ everyone’s talking about? We’re here to say it is very real. Covid-19 caused an ever-cascading set of worldwide supply chain failures that are leading to many, many electronic parts being simply… gone.” Adding, “Here’s one way we’re working to beat the chip shortage: we’ve just finished a revision of Playdate’s main board (for units made later next year) so that we can use a similar, but more widely available, CPU.” Panic also sheds some light on the firmware being improved in anticipation for the new release date paved for the Playdate. “After some tuning and tweaking, games deliver exactly as we dreamed: you wake up in the morning, and your Playdate is ready with two new games for you to unwrap and play. New game delivery works great and feels great — every time. We really think you’ll agree when your season begins. We’ve also just completed some very complex work on a file system update for Playdate, so Playdate will ship to you with a more robust, journaling file system, to get the most of its 4GB of storage.” In a similar announcement this week, Valve told its planned late year release for the Steam Deck is also being delayed. The firm tells that the global chip shortage is to also blame for the pushed launch window. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you patient to wait a few more months for the Playdate’s arrival?

Delay For Steam Deck Announced Following “Global Supply Chain Issues” Continuing

While Nintendo continues to dominate the portable gaming sphere with Nintendo Switch now settled into the 90 million sold units projectile this past financial quarter, Valve is also entering the market with its own iteration of proprietary hardware as well. Previously announcing the Steam Deck, the new device delivers a PC experience in the palm of your hands for a premium price. The handheld is to ship with two analog sticks and trackpads for cursor-sensitive software. Atop of that, there is also a separate dock which users can purchase to play their favorite titles from the Steam library right to the television. More notably is that certain tiers for the Steam Deck will feature expanded storage units which differentiate between eMMC & SSD hard drives. But, the holiday 2021 release for the system is now being pushed to early 2022 according to Valve. A new blog post reveals that restrained access to required components is leaving the firm to delay the release until next year. The launch of Steam Deck will be delayed by two months. We’re sorry about this—we did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren’t reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates. Based on our updated build estimates, Steam Deck will start shipping to customers February 2022. This will be the new start date of the reservation queue—all reservation holders keep their place in line but dates will shift back accordingly. Reservation date estimates will be updated shortly after this announcement. “Again, we’re sorry we won’t be able to make our original ship date. We’ll continue working to improve reservation dates based on the new timeline, and will keep folks updated as we go,” Valve concludes with a final apology statement. While many go ahead to compare the Steam Deck to the Nintendo Switch, Valve interjects that its intent is not to overtake the market from the Japanese firm. Instead, Valve’s intentions is for an entirely different demographic, the firm explains. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you fine waiting a couple more months for the Steam Deck? Steam Deck is scheduled to release sometime in early 2022. Source: Valve

The Next Fallout Installment Is On Bethesda’s Schedule, But It Is Far From Being Realized Currently

In long term, the hierarchy of Bethesda RPGs have proven to be worth the wait – even after the number of caveats that ship with the full version of the game respectively. But with the firm set on delivering now three major IPs with its internal studios, more time is required to deliver the game being worked on at the time. Currently, Starfield is the big series that Bethesda is aiming to ship later in November next year. When speaking to IGN recently, game director Todd Howard expressed his certainty on the developer shipping the game at its promised November 11th release date. For other properties that the team expressed previously on the game, Pete Hines previously pressed that the game is being made solely for Xbox (in terms of console hardware) as he apologizes to PlayStation owners. But during the discussion with IGN this week, Howard also briefly discloses that Fallout is on the roadmap over at Bethesda. However, the series to receive a new entry is far off the horizon currently with Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI stacked up already. I don’t see… Look, Fallout’s really part of our DNA here. We’ve worked with other people from time to time – I can’t say say what’s gonna happen. You know, we have a one-pager on Fallout 5, what we want to do. […] Again, if I could wave my hand and have [Fallout 5] out – you know, I’d like to find a way to accelerate what we do, but I can’t really say today or commit to anything, [like] what’s going to happen when. To give a greater perspective on what this entails for the wait time for Fallout 5 essentially, Howard in a separate interview with The Telegraph shares that The Elder Scrolls VI is still in its design phase. And with Starfield ahead of the Skyrim follow-up, a couple years is an understatement for the time being. In terms of a positive sign for the Fallout IP, Bethesda recently recruited a developer from one namely Fallout mod, Fallout_ London. In that, the game studio welcomed Stephanie Zachariadis as an Associate Quest Designer. You can read the full report by heading here. Will you be patient until the next Fallout game ships? Source: IGN