Earlier this month, a Halo Infinite leak revealed that developer 343 Industries cut lot of content from the game during development. According to the report, over two-thirds of the Halo Infinite campaign was scrapped. Now, a new datamining leak has revealed a cut campaign cutscene from the game.
The report revealed that the original vision of Halo Infinite was to have it be an open-world game. Rather than progress through a series of levels as the other Halo games had been, Infinite would have players explore a giant land mass, with the ability to complete missions in any order, similar to something like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. As development progressed, 343 Industries had many issues arise; 343 had to create a new engine as the tools they used from original developer Bungie were buggy and difficult to use, staffing at 343 was an issue, and the creative direction of the game was in flux and eventually, the open-world they had planned was cut back into something smaller.
The new leak reveals a new cutscene for the game which would’ve acted as mid-credits scene, possibly teasing the next game or potential future content for Halo Infinite, campaign DLC that has been rumored. As of now, nothing has been made official so it’s still unclear why this cutscene was removed from the game. What is has brought on are thoughts and theories from fans on what this new cutscene means, if anything.
One fan wrote “it’s more interesting that they cut this than what it actually shows, I mean I’d assume with the state of the UNSC a wide range of Halo characters could reasonably have been on the Infinity when it was attacked and are likely still on Zeta somewhere for future storylines. Knowing that yes, someone is there, doesn’t say much. Removing the scene then is interesting and points towards some change in plans, or they are simply giving themselves more flexibility by not locking themselves into extra details as they work on the next campaign.”