(Microsoft Image)

Microsoft has announced the release date for its forthcoming first-person shooter Halo Infinite, as well as a lineup of special-edition Xbox hardware meant to celebrate the video game franchise’s 20th anniversary.

Infinite will be available for purchase on Dec. 8, Microsoft confirmed Wednesday at the German gaming conference Gamescom. It’s planned to be available on the Xbox Game Pass at launch, and its multiplayer mode will be offered as a separate, free-to-play game.

The release date for Infinite leaked slightly before the Gamescom reveal, due to fans spotting a quickly retracted sales page on the Microsoft Store.

Famously, Halo Infinite was meant to ship late last year, as a launch title for Microsoft’s new Series X|S hardware. Like many other major video games, however, its development process was slowed down dramatically by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as what’s rumored to have been a troubled development process.

At launch, Infinite is planned to ship with a solo campaign mode as well as multiplayer. Other fixtures of the series, such as map creation via the Forge and the ability to play through the campaign cooperatively with a friend, are planned to appear as post-launch updates. Co-op is slated for “season two” of Infinite‘s content roadmap, to appear roughly around March 2022; Forge mode may appear as late as next June.

Microsoft and 343 Industries had previously been surprisingly quiet about this year’s anniversary, which marks 20 years since the release of the original Halo: Combat Evolved for Xbox. Today also marked several releases to mark that occasion, with new Halo-branded hardware going on sale later this year.

A Halo Infinite-themed special edition Xbox Series X is now up for pre-order, with a color scheme inspired by the series and a special sound effect when the unit powers on and off. It’s priced at $549.99 and comes with its own unique controller, with an “iridium gold 20-year mark” on the back and a set of custom grips. The Infinite Series X will also come with a digital copy of the game, but will ship on Nov. 15, a few weeks before the game itself is available.

Other new Halo-branded merch from Microsoft includes a new version of its Elite Series 2 controller (Nov. 15), a Kaira Pro wireless headset from Razer (no release date given), and a special edition of the Seagate expansion drive (October), which increases the Series X’s storage by up to 5 terabytes.

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