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Xbox 20th Anniversary livestream: How to watch and a rumored Halo surprise

By Eric Abent/

Today is a big day for the Xbox brand because today marks 20 years since the launch of the original Xbox. Microsoft launched the first Xbox console on November 15th, 2001, with Halo: Combat Evolved as its most notable launch title. In celebration of this anniversary, Microsoft is hosting a special livestream later today, and rumors that cropped up over the weekend suggest there may be more to this stream than Microsoft is letting on.

When and how to watch today's Xbox livestream

Before we can talk about any surprises that may happen during today's livestream, we first need to talk about when it will happen and how to watch it. Today's 20th Anniversary Xbox livestream will be happening at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST, and it'll be streaming on several different platforms. The easiest way to watch is via the YouTube stream we've embedded below, but it'll also be up on Twitch and Facebook for folks who prefer those platforms.

Microsoft has noted that the livestream will be available with subtitles in a wide variety of languages, including "German, French, BR Portuguese, LATAM Spanish, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Castilian Spanish, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Malay, Norwegian, Persian (Farsi), Portuguese (EU), Slovak, Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese."

To watch the livestream with subtitles in one of these languages, the YouTube feed is one you want. When the show begins, click the gear icon in the lower-right corner to select your preferred subtitles. We're not sure how long the livestream is slated to last, but we know that Microsoft is planning to "celebrate some of our favorite moments from the 20 years of Xbox."

Is Microsoft planning a Halo Infinite surprise?

While we weren't expecting any game reveals during this livestream, Microsoft may still have a big surprise up its sleeve. Over the weekend, we started hearing rumors claiming Halo Infinite's multiplayer will get a surprise release today rather than December 8th, which is the current release date for the full game.

It appears these rumors were kicked off by Twitter user Adam Fairclough discovering references to November 15th lurking in the Xbox store data for Halo Infinite's multiplayer (references that have since been changed to December 8th, for what it's worth). There's been a lot of back and forth about this throughout the weekend, with some suggestion that Microsoft intended for a surprise Halo Infinite multiplayer release only to delay it at the last minute because the logistics behind giving a game an early release are complicated.

Still, some industry insiders like VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb and VGC's Tom Henderson suggest that a shadow-drop may still happen today. After a weekend full of rumors going in both directions, it's safe to say that the status of Halo Infinite's multiplayer is firmly up in the air. We'll just have to check out the Xbox anniversary livestream later today to see if Microsoft makes that surprise reveal.

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