Xbox Series X confirmed for November — but there's bad news

Xbox Serial Ten confirmed for November — just there'south bad news

(Image credit: Microsoft)

The Xbox Series Ten finally has a release appointment. Sort of. Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Series X will debut in November 2020 — merely its highly anticipated launch championship, Halo Space, won't see the light of day until 2021.

Information comes from an Xbox Wire blog post by Will Tuttle, the publication's editor-in-principal. In the 2nd paragraph, Tuttle reiterates the panel'south release date:

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"There volition be thousands of games to play, spanning iv generations, when Xbox Serial X launches globally this November."

Naturally, fans probably wanted something a little more than specific — too every bit a price to go along with information technology — simply this is what we have for right at present. The rest of the post reiterates things nosotros already knew. The Xbox Series X will be backwards compatible with almost all Xbox Ane titles and dozens of Xbox 360 and original Xbox games. 3rd-party games such as Assassin'southward Creed Valhalla and Destiny 2 volition have both current- and next-gen versions, and volition optimize automatically based on your console of choice. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will host a variety of titles as shortly as they come up out, including The Medium and Tetris Outcome: Connected.

The Halo Infinite filibuster seems to be the just substantial piece of new information in the post, which Tuttle claims is necessary for "balancing the team'due south well-existence." A development update on the Halo website cites "ongoing COVID-related impacts."

"Information technology is not sustainable for the well-being of our team or the overall success of the game to transport it this holiday," the postal service explains.

It'due south perhaps not casual that the Xbox Wire mail spends a lot of time describing the Xbox Serial X's backwards compatibility features, including 4K resolutions and 120 frames-per-2d frame rates for sure older titles. If the Xbox Serial X is going to launch without a Halo title, then having thousands of other games to play is certainly a plumage in the system's cap. On the other hand, launching with thousands of titles is arguably less compelling if gamers have already played the vast majority of them on Xbox I (and Xbox 360, and the original Xbox).

Since Microsoft hasn't revealed an exact launch lineup for the Xbox Serial X, it'southward hard to say whether there volition be must-accept title at launch. In the meantime, all we can say is that the arrangement will be out in November, one way or the other, and that its star attraction (upward until now) will follow it erstwhile adjacent year.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom'southward Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and engineering. Later hours, you lot can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on archetype sci-fi.