The End of Halo Infinite?

January 23, 2024

10–14 minutes

#gaming, 343 industries, Games, Gaming, halo infinite, News, video-games, Xbox

The end of the world will be live streamed

343 held a community stream last week where they updated us on what we expected to be Season 6 of Halo Infinite but was in fact far more impactful. Indeed I dont think anyone would have predicted the announcement, however circumspect they were about saying so, that the latest Halo game will be anything but Infinite. Indeed many in the community are saying the game still has much further to go and that there are still core feautres missing from the game. Here ill discuss what was announced and what this means for Halo from now on. The highlights from the stream are as follows;

Seasons are no more
Content updates and Operations are how the game will be updated from now on
1 new developer made map
3 community made forge maps added to Big Team Battle
20 tier free operations passes with one paid for item per pass (the best stuff will of course be behind a paywall, 343 are still a business after all)
343 are hiring again in preparation for a new Halo games and experiences.

A full list of features can be found at the bottom of this post.

Content Update 29 announced during the latest 343 Community Livestream

Obviously the big news from this list is that Seasons and Battle Passes are no more and have instead been replaced with Operations and their battle pass equivalent. This may seem like a semantic change but actually points to a much larger shift in focus internally at 343. Support for Halo Infinite now matches the MCC support cadence as, once work began on creating Infinite, support for the MCC trailed off as development teams shifted focus to create content for the new game.

What does it mean for Halo Infinite?

Is this the beginning of the end? To be franks yes it is. Only the length of this long goodbye is up for debate. We can expect the game to be fully supported for a few years yet, but 343 have begun the process of moving on, and when the book is finally written on this game, we will look back at this community stream and say this was the moment they began to wind it down.

Is the game dead? I hate this question because it really depends what you mean by “dead”. Is the game at the pinnacle of the FPS zeitgeist? Absolutely not.

Does it have a large following on streaming platforms? No it doesnt. Does it have consistently high player numbers on Steam and Xbox? Now I hate Steam charts as a measure of a cross platform games success as much as the next man, but sadly they are the only official numbers we have.

Halo Infinite has an average player count of just above 4000 for the last 30 days and a peak of 8500 so it isn’t setting the world on fire there. It also sits at number 39 on the Xbox most played list. So its unplayable due to a low population then? Well….

Can you get a match in one of the many and varied playlists available? Yes you can. Although I appreciate this varies from region to region. (I honestly don’t know how players in Australia cope!) From my own experiences wait times to pick up matches are more than acceptable, albeit longer than if I queue up in Apex or COD. Ranked wait times are significantly better when queuing up with a 4 stack although there is a chance you’ll match up with the same opponents time after time. In summary the game is fun and has a more than healthy enough population to quench most FPS fans needs.

Gone too soon?

I have seen a lot of consternation over the last few days with many players feeling like support has ended and the game is being closed off too early. My question to these people is what did you expect to happen? How long did you expect support to continue for? From my perspective 343 have fixed many of the problems the game launched with, especially the lack of content. Most aspects of the game and I am sure the underlying tech, including networking and Forge, are in a good place.

So why begin the slow wind down of the game? In short because the game isn’t hitting revenue targets and no longer supports the studio designed to run it. The only way to get back on track (monetarily at least) is to create a new title, with a new launch, that learns the lessons of Infinites troubled delivery in to this world, and change the narrative that the game and franchise are worth players investing their time and money in.

What does it mean for Halo?

Is a new game incoming? Yes they told us as much. And frankly speculating whether or not 343 are developing a new Halo title is somewhat redundant. Their entire rai·son d’être is developing and releasing Halo titles.

Is a new game imminent? I believe this will depend largely on their choice of game engine. Halo Infinites Slipspace engine will have been under active development and improvement throughout the life cycle of the game. Its how 343 have improved and added to the game in many ways. So if the game(s) they are developing now use Slipspace and extended tech like Forge and assets from Halo Infinite, a new Halo experience may be with us sooner than we think (yes this is fan boy capping). If however they switch game engines to something like Unreal 5, then we may be in for a fairly lengthy wait.

Are they really switching to Unreal? We have little in the way of hard facts to go on here outside of a few reports and Linkedin profiles (since changed) to suggest that 343 have at least dabbled in porting Halo to Unreal. How far along these efforts are and whether we actually see a game built on this tech is really anyone’s guess at this point. I am of the opinion that anyone claiming to have “sources” is simply chasing clout and dabbling in the dark arts of Trust Me Bro news right now to give us any concrete evidence of this change.

Of course it is entirely possible that more than one Halo game is under active development. Certain Affinity have been working on something for a few years now and we have still heard no official word that Tatanka, or any other project they may or may not be working on has actually been cancelled. Many fans have been calling for a split in the Halo franchise, with Single player and Multiplayer games being separate releases. Whilst I see a lot of positives in this approach, I cannot help but feel this would split the fan base and create a two tier system, at least in terms of gameplay experiences.

Whats likely to happen?

I expect to see meaningful updates for all of 2024 and in to 2024, however after that I expect to start seeing rumours, hype and trailers for whatever comes next. After this starts I would expect to see content to Infinite trail off, consisting of minor armour pieces and user generated content to pad out battle passes.

Assuming a release date, at the earliest of December 2025 for Halo 7 I think 3.5 years worth of meaningful, mainline updates for a game that launched in the state it did is pretty good. It is available for free, has launched countless updates with a robust Forge mode adding to the library of maps and modes available. Say what will about 343 but they fix their mistakes.

Also just because a new game will release also doesnt mean that support will end completely. The way MCC has been supported over the years gives us enough clues to this. We can expect to see playlist, rotations, classic armour pieces, and more forge content added to Infinite for years to come. See you in the arena.

All the new features and updates coming to Halo Infinite

You can find the original post for this information on Reddit

Customization

Mark IV Armor Core coming on January 30th, available for free to all players.
- Armor Cores are free in Halo Infinite, and have been for a long time.
Mark IV base helmet is cross-core
Cross-core shoulders coming on January 30th
Halo TV Show helmets will be available to earn for free via the Ultimate Challenges/Capstone.

Seasonal

Seasons are coming to an end in Halo Infinite as they shift to a different approach. There will not be a Season 6.
This doesn’t mean content is finished for Halo Infinite. January 30th update is simply known as “CU29”, as in Content Update 29.
Operations and Operation Passes are the way forward for Halo Infinite. There will no longer be a Seasonal Battle Pass like you would see in Season 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Operations

Operations continue to run for around 4-6 weeks.
There were three new Operations revealed:
- Spirit of Fire – starts on January 30th
- Cyber Showdown III – starts after Spirit of Fire ends
- The Yappening II – starts after Cyber Showdown III ends
New Arena map coming on January 30th called “Illusion”.
- Middle area of the map will make you invisible, similar to the low-grav spaces from Anchor 9 or Condemned. Area is clearly marked.

Forge

Covenant items being added to Forge coming on January 30th
- A heck ton of items – floors, walls, FX, etc.
- Like most Forge items – you can recolour them. If you want an Orange Covenant update, go crazy.
You can now customize the colours and textures of certain biome objects.
- Very vibrant colours were shown on trees, trunks, grass, etc.
You can now edit the colours and textures on certain decal objects.
Forge Creator Mode functionality coming on January 30th
- Script Brains logic were previously tied to maps. The Forge Creator Mode functionality will allow you to save the Script Brains to game modes, meaning you no longer need to modify each individual map and place Script Brains on them.
“Alien Object” palette coming in a future update
- Not on January 30th, stay tuned for more information.
Flood object palette coming in a future update.
- Not on January 30th, stay tuned for more information.
- It’s so gross, it’s so good.
- u/ske7ch343 described it as “moist”.

Playlists, Matchmaking and Community Created Content

Big Team Battle (12v12) refresh coming next month
- “Thunderhead”, “Insolence” and “Obituary” community maps will be added to the playlist.
Husky Raid refresh coming next month.
Squad Battle (8v8) refresh coming in the future.
New playlists coming in the future
- Duh.
343 looks at Forge maps out their in the customs game browser, file browser, etc. They vet the maps and then contact the map creator and ask to work with them. If they want to, 343 will have QA check out the map and take note of bugs, exploits, etc, and give them back to the Forger to resolve.
- Constant back and forth process. Not as simple as some people think it might be.
Firefight: King of the Hill will see a refresh with more map additions next month.
- 343 folks asked for Forge folks to make more Firefight maps 🙂
Match Composer-esque feature coming to Halo Infinite later this year
- Will allow them to introduce more content and “playlists” without clogging up the playlists page, more niche modes like Team Snipers, etc.
- Described as similar to Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s Match Composer with a “slight twist” on it.

Ranked Matchmaking

When the Match Composer releases later this year, Ranked Doubles and Ranked Slayer will be permanent additions in there.
Ranked Arena will still be a permanent playlists.
Ranked Tactical and Ranked Snipers will continue to be rotational.
New Ranked playlist experiences on the way.

Networking

Overall feedback was positive for updated networking test(s) but community sentiment says to please fix up other issues before global-scale launch.
Pinging is now consistent, hit registration improved, fusion coil catching is more consistent and Banshee Bomb issue is resolved.
Updated networking is not coming on January 30th – stay tuned.

Miscellaneous

343 are working on a way to unlock old cosmetics that were previously tied behind Events, Promotions, Ultimate Challenges, etc. They specifically make comparison to The Exchange system seen in Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
- No time frame on this yet.
Easy AntiCheat is coming to Halo Infinite later this year.

The Future of Halo

Brian Jarrard (ske7ch) says that multiple teams are at work on “future projects” in relation to Halo, and points to the Microsoft Careers page if you’re interested in applying!

Halo Championship Series – Customization

HCS Year 1 Launch Bundles returning on January 30th
- Only for the teams which remain in the HCS
- Cloud9, Faze Clan, OpTic Gaming, Sentinels and Spacestation Gaming
The HCS Year 1 Launch Bundles will be fully available outside of their kits. You can use the Armor Coating on all cores and Weapon Coating on all weapons.
If you own these items from Season 1, you will get all of this for free.
For teams no longer in the HCS, if you own those items from Season 1, you will also get access to all of this for free.
HCS 2024 Launch Bundles coming on January 30th
Faze, Complexity, Quadrant, OpTic Gaming, Cloud9, Sentinels, Spacestation
HCS 2024 Launch Bundles will contain:
Cross-core armor coating
Team visor (also cross-core!)
Dracon Bandit Weapon Model included with purchase of any of the team bundles