During last month's E3, Halo fans were provided with an exciting new cinematic trailer for the upcoming Halo Infinite game. On top of that, the trailer contained a hidden message that no one had discovered... until now. Yesterday, twitter user @Xepyal tweeted their discovery to 343 Industries Narrative Experience Director, Dan Chosich, asking, "Has this been found before?" It, in fact, had not been found before, and the tweet received a reply from Halo's official twitter account. The reply came via gif format, and contained Halo character, Halsey, stating, "It took you long enough," confirming the discovery.
So what exactly was the discovery? In order to answer that question, the twitter user had to go through a sort of painstaking process. At the trailer's 3:33 mark, several red pixelated images pop up on the screen as the lost marine begins to power up Master Chief. This occurs in less than a second, but the Halo fan was able to take several screenshots of the red images, and combine them together in order to reveal a QR code. The QR code then provides a link to a short audio message from AI-based Halo character, Cortana. The message contains the sound of footsteps, followed by Cortana saying, "This... this is a part of me. I don't know why. I don't know how. But it is me."
Halo has become known for hiding long-undiscovered secrets within its games, but even given that history, one can only speculate as to what the message might mean for the upcoming title. It could be a hint to the fact that Cortana and Master Chief have always been connected to one another, and she may have received some sort of memory wipe causing her to forget about the Spartan, but again, that's merely an educated guess. We won't know for sure what it means until we get our hands on the game itself, which is slated for a Holiday 2020 release date.
Halo Infinite will be available on Xbox One, PC, and Xbox's upcoming, unreleased console, Project Scarlett. Developed by 343 Industries, the game will feature the return of iconic fan favorite character, Master Chief, and will expand on the franchise's epic, odyssey-like narrative surrounding the large green Spartan. Whether there will be more secrets hidden away in upcoming trailers and gameplay footage has yet to be seen, but it's always exciting when developers decide to stash these hidden secrets away, challenging the gamers themselves to uncover them.