Microsoft has had to use Xbox Series X dev kits for the first Halo Infinite tournament. Halo Infinite is being used in the Halo Championship Series event for the first time. However, in order to run the game, Microsoft had to use Xbox Series X development kits. Normally, regular consoles are used at tournaments but due to the overwhelming demand and lack of consoles, even Microsoft couldn’t secure enough retail units to run the tournament.
Instead, a mixture of retail units and development consoles was used instead. Although the dev kits look very different from retail consoles, they are able to run in “retail mode” for the tournament which makes them functionally the same. Here’s what the Xbox Series X development consoles look like.
The news was broken by Tashi, the Halo Esports team lead at 343 Industries and Microsoft.
The news that Microsoft is having to resort to using dev kits for the tournament shows how bad the global supply shortage really is. Normally, dev kits aren’t seen in public as developers buy dev kits directly from the console manufacturer in order to create games for the console. The cost of dev kits for studios vary for each console maker. It was revealed back in 2013 that a PS4 dev kit would typically cost studios around $2500.
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are all trying to get stock into stores in time for Christmas. It was reported last month that Sony was flying PS5 consoles into the UK in order to try and meet demand. Nintendo has cut its production projections for the financial year by 20% because of supply constraints. There were rumors in October that Microsoft would be able to increase supply for the holidays. Evidently, the company wasn’t able to increase it enough to supply its own tournament.
