A Halo Infinite prequel is out next month as an all-new tie-in novel

Halo Infinite
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Halo: The Rubicon Protocol, a tie-in novel that details the events that precede the story campaign in Halo Infinite, is out next month.

While some details of what happened before Halo Infinite kicked off can be gleaned from the game's various audio logs, Halo: The Rubicon Protocol - written by Kelly Gay and set to release on August 9, 2022 - further explores "some of the events in those six months before the Master Chief was reawakened, and the game’s campaign begins".

Not all fans are happy at the news of a tie-in product, though. 343 Industries' accompanying tweet didn't mention that the story expansion would be in a separate book - leading some to think, at least initially, that it was in-game content - and others think that the story in the book should be delivered in-game, perhaps as DLC

The good news, however, is that you can try before you buy and preview the beginning of the novel right now over on Halo Waypoint (thanks, PCGN). 

Did you catch the news that 343 Industries is working to preserve a bunch of content from pre-release versions of Halo and Halo 2, rebuilding them for players and modders to enjoy in the Master Chief Collection?

You'll be forgiven if you've forgotten - or weren't even born yet - but footage of Halo 2's Earth City demo was presented at E3 2003. The engine powering that demo was ultimately scrapped and its content never made it into the final release of Halo 2, and there was never much reason to believe it would ever become playable to the public.

Now, however, a group of developers at 343 Industries have begun restoring content from pre-release versions of various Halo games with the aim of making it playable in the Master Chief Collection.

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Season 2:

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Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, 12DOVE

Vikki Blake is 12DOVE's Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.