Some online services for legacy Halo games are set to be disabled today.
The Xbox 360 titles impacted by the move are Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo 4, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo Spartan Assault and Halo Wars.
While the games will still be playable, they’ll support reduced online services (see the chart below), with features like matchmaking, file share and challenges being switched off.
Halo Infinite | PC Overview
Halo Waypoint has more information on the features that will continue to be supported for each game and an FAQ about the sunsetting process, which confirms that backwards compatible versions of the titles will be affected.
343 Industries initially planned to end various online services for Xbox 360 Halo games in December 2021, but a revised January shutdown date was later announced.
A breakdown of how the games will be affected once online services are disabled
“Every cycle spent maintaining and supporting Xbox 360 legacy services is time and energy not spent on the future of Halo,” the studio said previously.
“Owners of these titles will still be able to play these games indefinitely, however, certain online features and experiences, particularly online matchmaking, will be limited or disabled.”
Having originally been scheduled for release in November 2020 as an Xbox Series X/S launch title, Halo Infinite was released in December.
343 is currently working on several features that were cut in order to release Halo Infinite last year, including campaign co-op and Forge mode, which don’t yet have confirmed launch dates.
