After a year-long delay, Halo Infinite will arrive on December 8th. Developer 343 Industries confirmed the timing during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event today. However, this date was leaked just hours before the show started.

Italian gadget site Aggiornamenti Lumia first noticed that the game’s Microsoft Store listing was updated with the new date in some regions, and sources tell The Verge that it’s correct. Microsoft is likely saving the big reveal for today’s Gamescom Opening Night live event, which kicks off at 2PM Eastern. It’s just a shame it had to be left out of the company’s fairly uneventful Xbox Gamescom presentation.

343 Industries announced last week that Halo Infinite won’t be launching with campaign co-op or Forge mode, which allows players to create and play custom maps. But if it means that the developer can ship a more polished single player campaign and competitive multiplayer modes on time, it may be worth the trade-off. Halo Infinite multiplayer betas also kicked off last month, and so far the general consensus seems to be positive.

It’s hard to overstate how important Halo Infinite will be for Microsoft. It was originally meant to be one of the big draws for the Xbox Series X and S last year. Its delay left the company without a major exclusive release, while Sony had several for the PlayStation 5 post-launch.

Source: Engadget