343 Industries has revealed the date when the online multiplayer servers for several Halo games on Xbox 360 will close down: January 13, 2022. Back on December 18, 2020, the studio announced these servers would shut down no earlier than one year after it had posted the notice, but now a definitive date has been decided.
"To date, we’ve juggled future-facing work and priorities with continued upkeep of Halo’s Xbox 360 legacy services. Maintaining these legacy services today requires significant time and resources which directly impacts the studio’s ability to support current and future projects like Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo Infinite," wrote 343 Industries in a statement.
As the player base of these games on Xbox 360 dwindle more and more, the imbalance between maintaining the Xbox 360 servers and working on recent projects increases. Additionally, the digital sales of the Xbox 360 Halo games have greatly slowed down and new physical sales of them were halted back in 2018.
The following games are affected: Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo Wars, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and Spartan Assault. While the multiplayer functions of these games will be limited following the server closures in January, the games will remain playable offline. Along with finally deciding on a date for sunsetting the servers, 343 Industries also showed off some footage of Halo Infinite's campaign this morning.
Halo Infinite launches on December 8 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
George Yang is a freelancer writer for IGN
Continue reading...
"To date, we’ve juggled future-facing work and priorities with continued upkeep of Halo’s Xbox 360 legacy services. Maintaining these legacy services today requires significant time and resources which directly impacts the studio’s ability to support current and future projects like Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo Infinite," wrote 343 Industries in a statement.
As the player base of these games on Xbox 360 dwindle more and more, the imbalance between maintaining the Xbox 360 servers and working on recent projects increases. Additionally, the digital sales of the Xbox 360 Halo games have greatly slowed down and new physical sales of them were halted back in 2018.
The following games are affected: Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo Wars, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and Spartan Assault. While the multiplayer functions of these games will be limited following the server closures in January, the games will remain playable offline. Along with finally deciding on a date for sunsetting the servers, 343 Industries also showed off some footage of Halo Infinite's campaign this morning.
Halo Infinite launches on December 8 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
George Yang is a freelancer writer for IGN
Continue reading...
