After being delayed by roughly a year, Halo Infinite is among the most anticipated games of this year. Now set to release in Fall 2021, we still don’t know exactly what to expect from the latest entry in the Halo series. In a recent blog post, Microsoft spoke about its work to make PC a destination for Xbox games. It was here that the company announced that Halo Infinite will include cross-platform play between PC and Xbox, as well as cross-progression between the two platforms.
In a post to Xbox Wire, Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty talked about the team’s emphasis on bringing the Xbox ecosystem to PC. In pursuit of fostering communities around games rather than devices, Microsoft wants its big 2021 release to be a seamless experience across platforms.
April 29th, 2021
Kevork Djansezian / reuters
Developers launching PC games on the Xbox storefront will soon be entitled to more money than ever before. Microsoft has long employed a revenue-sharing model of 70 percent for creators and 30 percent for Xbox, but starting August 1st, that’s shifting to 88 percent for developers and 12 percent for Xbox, at least when it comes to PC releases. Xbox console developers won’t see a change to the existing revenue-sharing model.
“Some news, this will be a good one, is that starting August 1st, we are going to be moving our rev split for developers from 70/30 over to 88/12,” head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty told Engadget. “It feels like right now, with our sort of re-invigorated push on PC, it seems a good time to do that.”
Published on 29 Apr, 2021
Microsoft today announced that you ll be able to Master Chief it up with your consolepals in Halo Infinite, thanks to cross-platform multiplayer and progression. Details on how it will actually work are thin for now, but in theory that sounds neat. Nice to play with your pals. Though less fun to face mousefolk if you re playing on controller. Ah, we ll see in due time.
Microsoft explain that as well as cross-platform play, your multiplayer customisation and progress will follow you across all platforms. Handy for people who play on both, I guess? They add that they want Hinfinite to offer a premier PC experience, including highly desired features such as support for ultrawide and super ultrawide screens, triple keybinds, a wide variety of advanced graphics options and more. Yeah yeah, but will you relax that Microsoft Store security to enable modding?
Over the course of the last several years, Microsoft has worked to create policies, technology, and programs that invite more players to the table. Whether it was the Xbox Adaptive Controller adding immense accessibility to gaming interfaces or the Xbox Game Pass acting as one of the best deals in all of gaming, Microsoft’s efforts generally seem to prioritize comfort and care for its customer base. Now, it’s latest policy is turning attention to the developer side where Microsoft just announced that starting in August, it will reduce its take from PC game sales on the Microsoft store from 30 percent to a mere 12 percent.