Sorry, Halo Infinite Doesn't Have Any Tasty Moa Birds

Moa birds, the extinct animal from Halo: Reach, have become something of a phenomenon for the Halo franchise, inspiring Pringles and t-shirts, but they won't be featured in Halo Infinite for a very good reason.

John Junyszek, the community manager for Halo developer 343, said on Twitter that Moas are native to the planet Reach, so they won't show up in Halo Infinite, which is set on Zeta Halo.

"They are native to Reach, so you probably won't be finding any of this portion of Zeta Halo - or perhaps they're missing cause we ate too many Moa Burger Pringles?" he wrote to a fan.

Moas, which were made into burgers at restaurants on Reach according to Halo lore, were actually real birds that existed in New Zealand before going extinct. The real birds were never made into burgers in real life, however ... we think. Halo Infinite's setting on Zeta Halo will have other wildlife for players to encounter, but the game is not an RPG, so players won't be hunting and skinning animals for resources.

"Halo Infinite's campaign doesn't have a crafting system, however, and you won't spend time hunting and skinning animals to make better gear for Master Chief," Microsoft's Joseph Staten said. "Spartans wear Mjolnir assault armor. They don't need leather boots."

Microsoft recently became interested in the Moa birds again for marketing purposes and partnered with Pringles for "Moa Burger" chips, and then later created a special "Have S'Moa Burgers" t-shirt that you can buy. Only modern science can let us distill down the flavor of an extinct bird from a video game into flavor dust.

After a year-long delay, Halo Infinite is slated to release this fall for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. We recently learned that Spartan Griffin will appear in the game, while 343 has showcased a brand-new weapon, the Skewer. Halo Infinite's multiplayer will be free-to-play.