So it will come to pass. As we head further into the current generation so previous generations must be cut away, leaving games shorn of their online component, leaving only the offline single-player experience available to devotees. The servers for the Xbox 360-era of Halo games will be shutting down.
343 Industries has announced the date when online multiplayer servers will close down. On January 13, 2022, players of Xbox 360's Halo games will no longer be able to play online - an end of an era.
It's not surpising. Digital sales of Halo games on the Xbox 360 - which launched in November 2005 - are small and the physical sales were stopped in 2018. 343 Industries, meanwhile, are hard at work on future entries in the Halo series, which are vitally important to Microsoft considering Master Chief is one of the few recognisable mascots associated with the Xbox brand, ever since he first arrived in Halo: Combat Evolved 20 years ago.
"To date, we’ve juggled future-facing work and priorities with continued upkeep of Halo’s Xbox 360 legacy services," wrote 343 Industries, in a statement. "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."
The titles that will be affected by the server shutdown are: Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo Wars, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and Spartan Assault.
With the importance of Halo Infinite to Microsoft's plans for the reach (heh) of their Xbox Series X/S, 343 Industries are under major pressure to deliver big on the latest Halo - a totemic franchise for the console.
343 Industries are also busy maintaining the online multiplayer experience for Halo: The Master Chief Collection. This is a six-game collection featuring the Xbox 360-era of Halo games but optimised for Xbox Series X/S. Improvements include 4K, faster framerates of up to 120FPS, faster loading times, and cross-generation play with Xbox One and PC users. The Halo: Master Chief Collection launched on the Xbox Series X/S in November 2020.
Besides finally revealing the date for closing the servers for the Xbox 360 Halo games, 343 Industries has also released some footage of Halo Infinite's campaign. Halo Infinite will launch December 8 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.