Bad news coming for Halo fans, especially Xbox 360 owners. 343 Industries has announced in the past few hours its intention to cease support for the online services of the entire franchise on the previously mentioned console, by December 2021.
As can be seen from the official tweet, which you can easily retrieve at the bottom of the article, the games will remain playable for a fixed time, even if some in-game experiences may be affected. We report in detail the reasons that led the US software house to suspend online services below:
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.
Our teams must continually weigh needs against available resources (time, people, expertise, etc.) and prioritize on areas and opportunities that yield the greatest impact. As these games continue to age, and as improved modern replacements for many of these experiences have moved to the forefront, less and less people are investing time in the original legacy titles. Digital sales have greatly slowed and physical sales of these legacy Xbox 360 titles were halted back in 2018.
Furthermore, the guys from 343 Industries specified in the very long press release that they are intentionally moving slowly and with a multiphase approach precisely to provide their users with ample notice and that there will be updates on the matter in the coming months.
The news comes in the same week that the development team has finally completed the transition of Halo: The Master Chief Collection from console to PC, bringing the entire brand to a single platform for the first time. For the uninitiated, the collection includes all the Xbox 360 games dedicated to John-117 except two, namely Halo Wars and Halo: Spartan Assault.
Halo Xbox 360 services are going offline in December 2021. Games remain playable indefinitely, but some experiences will be impacted.
Halo Xbox 360 services are going offline in December 2021. Games remain playable indefinitely, but some experiences will be impacted.
Please visit https://t.co/9934rbtGdO for all the info. pic.twitter.com/11hEpzUrwE
— Halo (@Halo) December 18, 2020
