Halo Infinite multiplayer will be 120 fps on Xbox Series X — and it's free

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Halo Infinite multiplayer is going in an exciting new direction

Halo Infinite
(Image credit: Xbox)

After its massive reveal at last week's Xbox Games Showcase, new info on Halo Infinite continues to trickle out by the day. The latest bit of official news is a big one — the multiplayer component of Microsoft's upcoming shooter will be completely free to play, and will support 120 fps framerates on Xbox Series X. 

Shortly after several leaks made the rounds this week, 343 Industries officially confirmed today (July 31) that Halo Infinite multiplayer will indeed be free with high framerate support.

This piece of news is the latest in a series of updates following last week's big Halo Infinite gameplay reveal. That demo gave us our first look at Master Chief in action in the new game, revealing a return to the aesthetics and open-ended combat of the original game with new touches such as a grappling hook for traversal and true open-world exploration.

That gameplay demo has been divisive to say the least, with some players condemning the game's graphics (and making no shortage of memes) and others praising the back-to-basics look. But 343 has been impressively transparent since then, dropping a blog post late Thursday that addresses most of the major questions players have had.

The company noted that it's intentionally going for a cleaner aesthetic that harkens back to the original Halo games, but that the final build will look notably better than the demo we saw last week. It also confirmed that the campaign can be played in split-screen locally with two players, and online with up to four. Other confirmed details include the return of Forge mode, the game's availability on Steam, and the voice actors behind new characters The Pilot and War Chief Escharum. The post answers plenty of smaller questions as well, and is well worth a read for Halo fans. 

Between its open-world campaign and free-to-play multiplayer, Halo Infinite is shaping up to be a very different Halo than the one we're used to. 343's approach is reminiscent of the most recent Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game, which is a paid title that offers its Warzone battle royale mode for free. This seems like a smart move on 343's part, as offering Halo multiplayer for free could entice players to eventually pick up the single-player portion (or subscribe to Xbox Game Pass, which Infinite will be a part of).

The confirmation of 120 fps multiplayer action on Xbox Series X is exciting as well, particularly for competitive players. Halo 5's consistent 60 fps gameplay on Xbox One was part of what made that game so fluid to play, and doubling that framerate could offer console players a PC-like experience when it comes to responsiveness and precision. 

Michael Andronico
Michael Andronico

Mike Andronico is Senior Writer at CNNUnderscored. He was formerly Managing Editor at Tom's Guide, where he wrote extensively on gaming, as well as running the show on the news front. When not at work, you can usually catch him playing Street Fighter, devouring Twitch streams and trying to convince people that Hawkeye is the best Avenger.