Halo Waypoint confirms new Xbox 360 Halo server closure date
The future of Halo is only infinite on Xbox Series X/S
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Halo Waypoint has confirmed a slight extension on the Halo legacy server closure, moving from December 2021 to January 2022. 343 Industries has decided that it’s time to focus on current affairs, stating “Every cycle spent maintaining and supporting Xbox 360 legacy services is time and energy not spent on the future of Halo”.
With the campaign trailer of Halo Infinite bringing back those memories of playing Halo for the first time hitting our nostalgia right in the plasma grenades, we wanted to spotlight the Xbox 360 era of Halo. For the most part, Bungie held the reigns of the Halo franchise on Microsoft’s powerhouse of a games console.
We saw the conclusion to the Master Chief trilogy and the long goodbye from Bungie in Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. This was also the console generation that saw the first iteration of Halo Waypoint, first releasing on July 23rd, 2009. Originally, it was the host of the Halo Legends videos, a series of animated shorts depicting a concentrated hot piece of Halo lore. Since then, Halo Waypoint has transformed into the one-stop official news source for everything Halo and Master Chief related.
Of course, towards the end of the Xbox 360s lifecycle, we saw the return of Master Chief in the then highly anticipated Halo 4, which kick-started the reclaimed saga, although we’re not sure if Halo: Infinite will move away from the original blueprint or conclude it.
Halo Infinite should mark 343 Industries finally hitting the Needler on the head with finding the right balance between old and new with their stewardship of the flagship IP. Whilst Halo 4 struck some solid chords with its campaign, its multiplayer was lacking and couldn’t find a consistent audience despite attempts by Xbox to turn it into an eSports phenomenon. Halo 5 flipped the table, delivering a confused campaign experience that strayed too far from what made Halo an Xbox heartthrob. But the multiplayer was solid and was generally accepted by Xbox FPS fanatics.
With Chief looking at dealing with possibly three threats at once in The Banished (Covenant 2.0), Cortana’s Guardian/Forerunner wobble, and possibly The Flood, there’s plenty of content for 343i to throw or grapple at us. The one question we have is if 343i can keep content fresh and engaging for Halo Infinite apparent ten-year games as a service lifespan?
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