Halo Infinite's open world underwent ‘significant scaling back’ for launch

techradar.com:

Halo Infinite’s original open world looked very different, as developer 343 Industries made significant cutbacks and changes during development.

While Halo Infinite was the first entry in the classic sci-fi FPS series to introduce an open environment, its non-linear design underwent several iterations. The world that appears in the final release is a pared-down version of what 343 had originally planned.

“The team went through a lot of iterations on scope and biome variety before I joined,” said 343’s head of creative Joseph Staten, speaking to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences(opens in new tab). “Even after I joined the team, we had to make choices about where to scale back.”

Staten said the team didn't have time to create as varied a world as they had originally envisioned while meeting the level of graphical fidelity, detail, and world depth that players have come to expect. Although he thinks they made huge strides from Halo Infinite’s maligned 2020 E3 demo, targeted cuts were necessary.

“We didn’t end up cutting that much ultimately from the open world, but I know from the original designs there was a pretty significant scaling back of what the team had hoped at one point that they could deliver on.

“We knew that we needed to truly deliver a quality experience [and] scope our ambitions to make sure that the stuff that we did ship met expectations.”

But those expectations were themselves tricky to navigate. Although pitched as an open-world experience for the Xbox Series X, Halo Infinite doesn’t include some of the staple features that players might associate with the style. When designing the game, the team was careful not to include mechanics that would sit at thematic odds with the series and its characters.

“We