Of course, you can’t exactly blame the studio for exercising extreme caution. The earlier previews for Halo Infinite last year didn’t exactly go well. With that said, 343 Industries has just dropped new details about the upcoming Halo Infinite technical preview.
When will the first Halo Infinite technical preview start?
The forthcoming Halo Infinite test flight will mark a monumental step for the latest iteration in the iconic shooter franchise. It will serve as the larger public’s first glimpse of the game before an expected open beta before the title’s launch in late 2021. Much to fan’s dismay though, 343 Industries did not announce a release date for the first Halo Infinite technical preview. If it’s any consolation though, the studio did confirm some other, exciting details.
✈️ https://t.co/h1otyEQUcK pic.twitter.com/Lf9a9a1sIb — Halo (@Halo) July 23, 2021 The most recent post on the Inside Infinite blog comes after Halo’s community manager, John Junyszek, clarified certain things over on Twitter. According to the blog post, the first technical preview will focus on Arena gameplay vs bots. It will pit 4 Insiders against 4 bots set in Arena maps like Bazaar, Recharge, and Live Fire. 343 reasons that playing against bots will make it easier for Insiders to acclimate to the gameplay and pace. 343 also eased the understandable concerns by saying that they have added “quirks” to each bot to make fighting against them interesting. Lastly, 343 intends to switch things up daily to prevent Insiders from getting bored of playing through the same thing every day. Unfortunately, 343 stopped short of talking about what kinds of things Insiders can expect from the first technical preview of Halo Infinite. Instead, all the studio had to say is that it will “crack things up” after a slow start. If you’re wondering why 343 is referring to this as a technical preview and not an Alpha, the studio explains that the game is already “further along than what would truly be considered an alpha”. However, the studio also added that the game still isn’t at a “level of overall completeness some expect in a beta.” Thus, because the game is in a relatively weird place right now, 343 is referring to the upcoming test run as a technical preview. Regardless of what it is called, it’s clear that 343 has learned its lessons from the past. The studio wants to do the franchise right, which is why it is prioritizing player feedback. Here’s to hoping that something great comes of this - Phil Spencer’s earlier statement be damned.
