Xbox Series X launches in November with Halo Infinite delayed until 2021 but at least there's still Tetris

There appears to be some damage control going on over at the Xbox camp at the moment, with two pieces of next-gen console news suddenly appearing. The official Twitter feed for the team behind Halo Infinite, 343 Industries, has been updated with a post revealing that the game will be delayed until 2021. Microsoft has also published a new post to state that the Xbox Series X will be launched in November, bringing with it “thousands of games spanning four generations”.

The update about Halo Infinite has partially attributed the game’s delay to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the well-being of the developers being paramount. It’s also very likely the devs want to iron out the now infamous issues with the graphics that have made Halo Infinite so meme-worthy lately. The Halo franchise is vitally important for the Xbox series, and the delay will be a blow for fans of both the games and the consoles, although at least it means a more polished product should arrive on the shelves in 2021.

With this, Microsoft has revealed that gamers will be able to get their hands on the Xbox Series X in November of this year. The company has wisely focused on the extensive backwards compatibility feature of the next-gen console, while also listing numerous multi-platform titles such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Dirt 5, and mentioning the XSX exclusives like The Medium, Scorn, and Tetris Effect: Connected. Whether this lineup will satisfy expectant console fans remains to be seen, with one noted industry analyst joking that the Xbox Series X will still have “great launch software such as ‘System Software Update V1.01’”.

Regardless of whether playing Tetris on the world’s/Microsoft’s most powerful console will be sufficient enough for gamers or not, there is the possibility that the wait for the impressive hardware won’t be quite as long as is expected. A leaked warranty for an Xbox Series X/Xbox Series S controller revealed an end date of 11/5/2021 on the document. Presuming a one-year limited warranty is applicable here, this would leave a potential Xbox Series X launch date of November 5, 2020 in North America (November 6 in Japan).