343 Industries has announced that a second Halo Infinite multiplayer technical preview will take place on 24th September, as the studio ramps up their public testing for the game’s full release on 8th December for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.
The next #HaloInfinite multiplayer preview is targeted to arrive on Sept. 24! All fully registered Halo Insider profiles as of Sept. 13 are eligible to participate.
Don’t miss out! Head to https://t.co/3a5Xr1hUIc, get your profile fully filled out, then prepare for takeoff. pic.twitter.com/9GgAQP4f6p
— Halo (@Halo) September 9, 2021
In order to take part, you must be a fully registered Halo Insider, going through all the steps to confirm your eligibility. The deadline for this is 13th September, and while signing up does not guarantee a spot in the multiplayer preview, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been signed up for minutes, months of years. 343 has created a walkthrough video to detail the sign-up process.
It’s not clear what the focus of this second Halo Infinite preview will be, but fans will certainly hope for competitive multiplayer. The first technical preview almost exclusively featured matches against the new bots that 343 has created for Halo Infinite, giving players a solid way to get used to the refined Halo multiplayer action, learn maps, modes, and more.
The second test will likely broaden the pool of invited players, and could expand what’s offered to include head-to-head Team Slayer matches, perhaps other game modes like Capture the Flag, and even the Big Team Battle mode, which supports up to 24 players for the first time.
Further Reading: What we learnt from the Halo Infinite Multiplayer Technical Preview
Halo Infinite is all set to be the biggest release for Xbox this holiday, especially as they took the decision to make Halo Infinite’s multiplayer completely free to play. Any and every Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Windows 10 PC player will be able to hop into the action, while you’ll have to pay for the game or subscribe to Xbox Game Pass in order to play the campaign.
However, there’s real concerns that the game is being rushed to meet the 8th December release date. It’s effectively one of the last few days that Microsoft can release the game in order to get into people’s hands before Christmas, something that really didn’t go well for Cyberpunk 2077 last year.
A few weeks ago 343 Industries revealed that campaign co-op and the creative Forge mode will not be included at launch. Instead they will release alongside major updates to the game through its ‘live service’ post-launch plans. Campaign co-op is expected to come as part of Season 2, around three months after release, while Forge mode will come with Season 3, around six months after the initial launch.
So long as what is shipped is of high quality, I’m sure that fans will forgive 343 for delaying certain parts of the game, but it’s clearly far from ideal too have such a piecemeal release. Our fingers are tightly crossed…
Source: Twitter
