Halo Online Multiplayer Servers Will Close Next Year

343 Industries has revealed that the legacy Halo online servers will be closing in January 2022. Before you ready your pitchforks, this only includes the Xbox 360 versions of the games and not the Xbox One/Series X|S versions.

News of the legacy Halo titles receiving the “sunsetting” treatment was first announced last December. The Halo titles that will have their online servers closed were supposed to happen by the end of December 2021. So, I suppose we get to play our beloved Halo games online for a few more weeks at least.

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Why are 343 Industries closing the servers?

In a nutshell, it’s time-consuming and it costs money. 343 Industries also needs to put focus on the continued support of the titles included in Halo: The Master Chief Collection as well as the upcoming Halo Infinite.

When will the Halo Xbox 360 legacy servers be turned off?

The servers for the Halo Xbox 360 legacy servers will be turned off on January 13th, 2022.

halo sunsetting
Credit: 343 Industries

What Halo titles will be impacted by Sunsetting?

  • Halo: Reach
  • Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
  • Halo 3
  • Halo 3: ODST
  • Halo 4
  • Spartan Assault 
  • Halo Wars
halo sunsetting
Credit: 343 Industries

These titles are for Xbox 360 and included in Halo: The Master Chief Collection!

Yes, that is correct. A lot of the titles that will receive sunsetting treatment are included in Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It seems that only the standalone versions of Reach, Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 3, ODST, as well as Halo 4, will be impacted. The versions included in The Master Chief Collection will be safe.

The reason being is that 343 Industries say: “Halo titles within MCC have been rebuilt and remastered to leverage totally different, modernized services and will not be affected by this sunsetting.

Credit: 343 Industries

I noticed that Halo Wars will be impacted. Does this affect the Definitive Edition?

No, Halo Wars: Definitive Edition is safe as it’s an Xbox One game. In fact, any Halo title either improved in The Master Chief Collection or released from the Xbox One era will be safe from sunsetting.

If you want to find more information on the Halo legacy titles being impacted by sunsetting, you can check out the post on Halo Waypoint.

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In related news, we finally got to see some new campaign gameplay footage for Halo Infinite, and it was impressive. Halo Infinite will release for PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on December 8th.

Will you be sad to see the online servers switched off for the Halo legacy titles? Let us know across our social media channels.

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Featured Image Credit: 343 Industries/Microsoft