Alongside the Halo Infinite delay announcement, Microsoft’s gaming arm confirms the launch of Xbox Series X this November.
Will Tuttle’s recent Xbox announcement started with affirming the delay of Halo Infinite but assured that there plenty of titles to keep Xbox Series X owners busy while waiting for the game’s 2021 release.
Xbox Series X release penned in for November
The release window for Microsoft’s next-gen console just narrowed from “Holiday 2020” to November. The Verge picked up rumors hinting the release date somewhere in the first week of the month.
However, the possibility of it slipping further into the month is quite high, considering the uncertainty that the coronavirus pandemic brings.
What’s in store for the global Xbox Series X release
With the absence of Halo Infinite upon the console’s global launch, the announcement instead highlighted its recently modified Xbox Game Pass. This will include bagging exclusive titles such as The Medium, Scorn, and Tetris Effect: Connected—to name a few.
Aside from that, Xbox promotes its Smart Delivery feature that’ll allow title owners to play their games across the four generations of Xbox consoles.
“With Smart Delivery you only have to buy these games once to play the best versions for your console, across generations,” the announcement advocates.
• Battletoads
• Destiny 2: Beyond Light
• Call of the Sea
• The Medium
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2
• Wasteland 3
• As Dusk Falls
• The Gunk
• Tetris Effect: Connected
• Dragon Quest XI S— Xbox Game Pass (@XboxGamePass) August 10, 2020
Turtle further expressed the great work that their back-compatibility team has done to even make this type of feature possible. Xbox boss Phil Spencer also lauded the team during his interview with iJustine’s podcast last July.
An excerpt of the announcement reads:
“Our back compat team continues to develop new innovations that can be applied to a curated list of titles that will enhance them even further than was possible when they were originally created. These optimizations include the ability to render titles with increased resolutions up to 4K, delivering new HDR reconstruction techniques to games that were developed years before HDR came into existence, applying anisotropic filtering to improve image quality, and creating ways to increase or double the frame rate of certain titles.”
What about the Xbox Series S?
The Xbox Series X price was also left out from the announcement. As well as the existence of the Xbox Series S—a supposed more affordable version of the next-gen console.
The existence of the cheaper next-gen Xbox console is making headlines lately after new waves of leaks emerged online lately. Media outlets have been dubbing this supposed console as Xbox Lockhart.
A white Xbox controller was found by Twitter user Zak S from a digital retail store. The Verge goes on to report that the said controller is indeed genuine.
Xbox series X controller found in the wild!! pic.twitter.com/TEns4z45CB
— Zak S (@zakk_exe) August 9, 2020
Forbes further notes that the controller’s packaging entails that it “works with Xbox Series X/S.” As to when Xbox will confirm Lockhart’s existence is yet to be known. The gaming community is still holding on to what Spencer said during the podcast interview that more news is coming this month.
Featured image courtesy of Xbox