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343 Industries will end support for Xbox 360 Halo games in December 2021.
The developer has notified players twelve months in advance that the online servers for Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Spartan Assault, and Halo Wars will be shutting down next year.
“Month-to-month usage of these older Xbox 360 game services continues to decline, creating an even greater imbalance between the time and work required to maintain versus the net impact on the wider Halo community,” explained the developer in a recent update on the Halo Waypoint, emphasizing that offline gaming features will continue to be available. However, the changes still apply to titles that run on Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S through backward compatibility.
“That is not to say that we do not value and care for everyone who plays Halo; we absolutely do. But, as with any business, our teams must continually weigh needs against available resources (time, people, expertise, etc. ) and prioritize in areas and opportunities that generate the greatest impact.
“As these games continue to age, and as upgraded modern replacements for many of these experiences have come to the fore, fewer and fewer people are spending time on the original legacy titles. Digital sales have slowed dramatically and physical sales have slowed down. Of these Xbox 360 legacy titles were stopped in 2018.
“Each cycle dedicated to the maintenance and support of the Xbox 360 legacy services is time and energy that is not wasted in the future of Halo. To that end, today we announce our intention to retire our Halo Xbox 360 legacy services to focus entirely on the future of the franchise … In approximately ONE YEAR, December 2021, online services for legacy Halo Xbox 360 titles will be discontinued. Owners of these titles will still be able to play these games indefinitely, however, certain Online features and experiences, particularly online matchmaking, will be limited or disabled. “
Consequently, digital sales of the X360 Halo games have stopped.
ICYMI, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will receive more content throughout 2021. Future plans are outlined in the latest Halo Waypoint blog post of the year, which comes in the form of a Master Chief Collection (or MCC) development retrospective. The publication comprehensively describes some of the new content and features coming to the collection in the future.
More seasons are expected to arrive next year on a two-month regular basis. Starting with Season 5 in 2021, 343 plans to continue with Season 10 before deciding whether to add more seasons after that. Mod support will also be a great focus for the developer heading into the new year, with more information to be revealed next year.
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