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Microsoft’s ‘Halo Infinite’ delayed until 2021

Microsoft announced Tuesday the decision to delay the launch of Halo Infinite to 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley joins The Final Round to break down the details.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: And Jared, one of those stocks that we saw sell off in the session, Microsoft, it was down about 2.3% there. The news from the company breaking a short time ago-- or earlier in the afternoon, I should say-- that they will be delaying the release of the new Halo game. Dan Howley is here with that story. Dan, how significant is that delay, and what are the broader implications for Microsoft?

DAN HOWLEY: It's a pretty significant delay for them. Obviously, this is-- was supposed to be one of their big launch titles for their upcoming console, the Xbox Series X. Microsoft making a big push for this console generation. They didn't-- they couldn't, rather, keep up with Sony with the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One. So going into this current generation, they were looking to really head off Sony. And this way, they would come out on top.

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They're also doing a lot, as far as their software goes, with their Xbox Game Pass, as well as their xCloud cloud gaming platform. So Microsoft really, really, really trying to become the top dog in gaming. But Sony seems to have a little bit of an edge on them still, as far as originals go, and Halo was supposed to be that one big blast to come out when the console hit the market.

But now it's going to be delayed until 2021, so we won't see the impact. People might end up putting off purchases of the Xbox One X-- or Series X, rather-- and instead go with the Playstation 5. We still don't have pricing on either console yet.

So you know, what I like to say is that's their most important feature is they'll all have third-party games that are going to be great. They'll both have their own separate first-party titles that'll be amazing. But it really comes down to how much these consoles are going to cost people. And if Microsoft can undercut Sony somehow, then they may win this generation. If they don't, then they may see a repeat of the Xbox One and the original Xbox.