Yeah! Finally, Chief is back, kind of. That is, technically, a splash announcement was made by 343 Industries-the announcement of Halo: Edge of Dawn, a new novel chronicling the ongoing battles with the Banished on Zeta Halo. And, while the cover by Chris McGrath is just gorgeous (do check it out on Halo Waypoint, seriously), the launch really left a section of the community-withdown.

See, here’s a scary reality-this is not DLC. Not even a video game. It’s a novel, and for a franchise that should be the flagship Xbox experience, putting major plot points into novels instead of into expansions or sequels has upset some Spartans.

Here is what the official Halo account said in simple terms in their tweet: The Master Chief continues the fight against the Banished on Zeta Halo in Halo: Edge of Dawn. But then the reply-section is a whole circus of opinion ranging from positive to outright negative. @Jaybrown03INC said it plainly: should have been a campaign not a novel. And they were nowhere near alone.

@Sugoona_ said: Continuing the story in a book instead of DLC… im afraid it’s finally time to old yeller this franchise. Ouch. While @watchesJAWS asked 343 to stop dragging Chief through more stuff and instead focus all their efforts on expanding the wider Halo universe.

However, such commentary hardly can be grouped as one big disappointment. On the contrary, @MESTRECHEFE117 was just happy about the novel lore and wondered if the novel would get to Brazil. But then you have @boinksi, having read nearly every Halo book outside of Forerunner Saga because who finds time for that, remains cautiously optimistic that probably tying major plot beats to novels isnt great.

Then we have the whole Destiny 2 thing. @KC_4191 acknowledged the funny coincidence in names between Edge of Dawn and Destiny’s Edge of Fate and jokingly speculated on a possible link. (Spoiler: There’s not one. Probably.)

But the biggest question being asked is What does this mean for Halo Infinite in the future? Originally marketed as a 10-year game with regular updates to the campaign, post-launch support for Infinite has been… variable. With barely a whisper of any story DLC and yet somehow another novel filling in the narrative gaps, sceptical voices like @JurgensJaw might as well ask, Are we now getting a novelisation of those DLC’s every two years instead?

And 343 has not commented as yet on whether Edge of Dawn is a side story or a direct continuation of Infinite’s cliffhanger. And with no other games announced in sight, one cannot but sympathize with the frustration. @ollyysherr put his views succinctly: The story of Halo Infinite is continuing outside of the games?? Oh how far this franchise has fallen.

Maybe the only shining detail worth mentioning, is that so far the novels have kept Halo a domain only for hardcore lore geeks; if Edge of Dawn doesn’t fall prey to the same fate as Halo 5 and tries to force players to have to read it to understand the next game, it may become a worthy addition.

Currently, jaw-dropping cover art is all we got and no answers to the many questions. Is this novel really going to make another big move for Halo’s story? Or is it just another indication that Halo as a franchise is further and further removed from its foundations? Guess we are going to have to read it and find out.

And hey-if nothing else, at least it is not another live-service update nobody ever asked for. …Right?