Fans are paying tribute to Halo as its Xbox 360 servers have just been shut down for good.
As a new age of Halo flies in with Infinite, we're seeing the end of the old. Microsoft announced back in 2021 that the servers for Halo 3, Halo 4, Halo Reach, Halo Wars, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and Halo 3: ODST were all going to be shut down. The date was delayed several times, but the deed has been done - multiplayer Halo on Xbox 360 is no more.
As confirmed by the Halo support Twitter, January 13 marked the final day of Halo on the Xbox 360. The Twitter account said, "Online services for legacy Halo Xbox 360 titles have been discontinued. The affected games will remain playable indefinitely, but some experiences will be impacted".
In response to the closure, Halo fans have been sharing memories and tributes on social media. The Twitter post announcing that the closure had happened is full of comments showing support, including one video that shows Halo 3's servers when 1088008 players were online. In a surprisingly throat-tightening comparison, another fan shared a video showing a population of 0 as the servers were shut down. You can see that the server map has gone completely dark where it used to show lights representing player density.
The Halo subreddit is also full of tributes, including one video that thanks all the community for the memories and clips shared over the years. Another memorable video shows one lucky player recording the exact moment that Halo Reach's servers shut down, showing their Spartan looking for one last battle and being unable to. I'm not crying, you are.
For those who are suddenly crumbling to dust and missing the old age of Halo, don't worry too much as all the legacy games are available to play through the Master Chief Collection and show no sign of being shut down any time soon. Still, it's not quite the same without a chunky Xbox 360 controller and all your friends shouting down the mic at you for one more game.