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Xbox 20th anniversary: Halo Infinite multiplayer launch, Halo TV series coming and more

Microsoft gave fans a big surprise on Xbox's birthday.

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Xbox 20th anniversary event

You can join in the Xbox 20th anniversary celebrations on Monday.

 Xbox

Happy birthday, Xbox. It's been 20 years since Microsoft released its first console. To celebrate, it gave a big gift to the fans in form of the launch of the Halo Infinite multiplayer on Monday. 

Along with the release news, the Xbox anniversary celebration livestream had some other reveals for fans of Microsoft's gaming console. 

Can I rewatch the show?

The Xbox anniversary celebration aired at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET and can be seen again on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook.

Halo Infinite Multiplayer surprise

The biggest news from the show was the release of the Halo Infinite multiplayer. Players on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles can experience the first season of the multiplayer mode. Halo Infinite's full release will come later on Dec. 8, and Microsoft said all players' progress will carry over.  

More backward compatible and FPS boost games

There are 70 new games from the original Xbox and Xbox 360 catalogs now available to play on the Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles via backward compatibility. This includes the Max Payne trilogy, the FEAR series and Star Wars Jedi Academy. 

The games will get a visual improvement as well as bump in frames per second, a feature Microsoft's calls FPS Boost, when played on Xbox Series consoles. 

Master Chief heads to Paramount Plus

A new teaser of the upcoming Halo series was shown during the stream. The new show, starring Pablo Schreiber (best known for Orange Is the New Black and The Wire) as Master Chief, will be available on Paramount Plus in 2022. 

Making of Xbox docuseries 

Power On: The Story of Xbox is a six-part series looking back at the creation of the original Xbox with members of the team who came up with the concept. The show will debut on Dec. 13 on IMDB TV, Redbox, YouTube and The Roku Channel. 

What's in the Xbox Vault

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was an integral part of the original Xbox debut. He appeared with Microsoft co-founder  Bill Gates  for the original console's Jan. 6, 2001, announcement at that year's  CES  trade show. 

On Monday, the actor showed up on the stream to look back at his appearance 20 years ago and to reveal a browser game tied in with his latest movie, Red Notice. Players can visit XboxVault.com to answer a series of trivia questions with the chance to win a replica Cleopatra Egg from the movie, a custom Xbox Series X, 12 months of Game Pass Ultimate and a painting of Johnson when he was at the Xbox debut.