As the sun begins to rise for Halo‘s future, it starts setting for its’ past. 343 Industries has officially announced that the online game services for the Halo games on the Xbox 360 will be coming to a peaceful end in December 2021.
343 Industries explained that maintaining the support for Xbox 360 Legacy services requires significant time and recourses; which isn’t spent on supporting the future of the franchise. The team understandably wants their full focus on the future of Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo Infinite going into 2021 and beyond.
Because of this, the decision has been made to discontinue support for the certain online features and experiences; mainly online matchmaking. Thankfully, despite the removal of online services; fans will be able to continue playing their favourite Xbox 360 Halo games offline.
However, the removal of online services on Xbox 360 Halo titles will also effect some of the games in different ways. For example, some achievements will no longer able to be unlocked if they are linked directly with online multiplayer. The graph below goes into further detail on how each game will be affected
Never Forget.
Fans will have an entire year to go back and play the original Halo Xbox 360 titles; as their online services will be deactivated in December 2021. That being said, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will continue to support all of these games and more on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam.
As somebody who grew up with the Halo franchise primarily on the Xbox 360, this is certainly sad moment. I hope everybody has a chance to dust off their Xbox 360’s and take the Halo games on one last ride online before permanently jumping to Halo: The Master Chief Collection for all classic Halo needs; I know I will.
For the full details, you can head over to Halo Waypoint. For more news on great games, keep it tuned with Informed Pixel! Want to speak to the team and interact with other gamers? You can do so over on the Informed Pixel Facebook page or on the Informed Pixel Twitter account
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