343 Industries, while admittedly being very transparent about the challenges they’ve faced and what they need to do next in a video yesterday, announced that season 3 of Halo Infinite would be delayed until March of 2023. That extends an already six month long season 2 to something approaching 10 months instead, a true oddity in the live service world. To call the game “live” is something of a stretch at this point, given the limited content it’s gotten, though 343 did indicate things that would arrive in-game during this extended window.
But there was more, namely that they were doing something called a “match XP beta,” which a year into release, seems so basic it almost sounds like a parody. And then the unequivocal bad news, after failing to launch with it, 343 is cutting Halo local splitscreen campaign co-op in favor of online only, killing off a concept they’ve told players was coming since release in 2021.
Add all this to the other pile of Halo Infinite problems, the year delay pushing it way outside the Xbox Series launch, the eternally not-good progression system, the failure to make an impact alongside modern shooters like Apex, Warzone, Fortnite and Valorant, and you have a serious question that may need to be asked.
Should Microsoft keep 343 Industries in charge of Halo indefinitely? Or has their time with the series run its course since the release of Halo 4 in 2012, a full decade ago now?
I’m not saying this to dunk on 343, but it’s not an unfair question to posit given both the release of Halo Infinite with all the ongoing issues mentioned above, but really 343’s entire stewardship of Halo this past decade, which I don’t think anyone would argue has matched the original Bungie years. Microsoft’s flagship series no longer really feels like one.
There are two sides to this argument, and plenty of reasons to keep 343.
- Once they “figure out” Halo Infinite in full, a year or two for now, it could still be a long-term, meaningful project for Xbox.
- Who else would do it? As much as it might be a fun thought experiment to let new Microsoft purchases like Infinity Ward or the DOOM team do a Halo game, is that actually viable with the projects those teams currently have?
- Does it really even matter if Halo is a flagship franchise anymore? Microsoft now owns half the iconic IPs in gaming it feels like, so the old holy trinity of Halo, Gears and Forza is not quite the end-all be-all it once was for them.
And yet, there is little about the last decade that gives me much confidence in 343’s continued handling of the series I’d consider among my favorites of all time, with Halo 3 one of my most-played games ever. I haven’t truly liked a single story campaign across 4, 5 or Infinite. Actual multiplayer gameplay was okay in 5, and can be really solid in Infinite, but 343 has shown little desire to innovate to expand Halo beyond its 20 year old roots, forever chasing that Bungie magic, and it’s very clear they are having major issues running live game. Not even a live game like Destiny, which trucks in huge amounts of content every three months, but even a live game like…any other multiplayer shooter, which constantly present new maps, weapons, modes and battle passes, and does not need 6-10 month long seasons to do so.
Halo has continued to sell well over the years, and Microsoft has boasted about Infinite’s playercount when it launched on Game Pass, but are they comfortable letting 343 handle it for what, another ten years?
That did seem to be the original plan, with Halo Infinite supposedly launching an entire new generation of Halo content. But it’s unclear whether that vision is still what Microsoft wants, or perhaps more pressingly, what fans want, given how things have been. They may be pot-committed to it now, and maybe 343 will pull it together, but for me, it’s not really just about Infinite, but the whole last decade.
I can’t shake the feeling that something is just not working here.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
