Back in December, a supposed screenshot of Halo Infinite leaked online, showing a new UI for the game that included a grappling hook. Then 343 Industries released a video called "We Are 343 Industries," and in that video, fans noticed gameplay that seemed to match the leaked UI in Halo Infinite. While some have taken this as confirmation that the new game will have a grappling hook, 343 Industries franchise development director Frank O'Connor has since provided some clarification.
According to O'Connor, 343 Industries thoroughly checks videos for any accidental leaks before releasing them, and the gameplay footage seen in the video isn't even "necessarily" from Halo Infinite. On Twitter, O'Connor confirmed that it doesn't show anything meaningful, and could actually be test environments or content cut from Halo 5: Guardians. O'Connor then implied that the grappling hook is not necessarily something that will actually ship with Halo Infinite when the game launches later this year.
Video game developers would usually ignore something like this, so O'Connor going out of his way to address the rumors makes it seem like the grappling hook is definitely not going to be in Halo Infinite. Then again, O'Connor could just be trying to throw fans off the scent. It's hard to say definitively at this point, as we have seen next to nothing of Halo Infinite in terms of gameplay. So far, all we've seen of the game are some E3 cinematic trailers.
With Halo Infinite targeting a holiday 2020 release on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, we shouldn't have too much longer to wait to see more of the highly-anticipated game. Chances are that the first real look at Halo Infinite will come at E3 2020 in June during Microsoft's press conference, with more reveals between then and the game's holiday launch.
Hopefully the likely Halo Infinite E3 2020 presentation answers some of the biggest questions about the game, like whether or not the grappling hook is actually going to be in it and how it's open world will work. Halo Infinite is expected to take the Halo franchise in some bold new directions, but it remains to be seen if this will be an overall good or bad thing for Microsoft's flagship franchise.
Halo Infinite launches this holiday season for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.