343 Industries Shutting Down Halo Xbox 360 Game Services in 2021

In a blog posted by 343 Industries, the company stated that all Halo Xbox 360 titles online services will be shut down coming 2021.

As quoted,

"Here at 343 Industries, our teams are wholly focused on the future of Halo. From significant updates and improvements to MCC and the move to PC, to the future of the franchise with Halo Infinite – we’re working to deliver great experiences for years to come. The future looks very bright for Halo fans and we’re incredibly excited about the opportunities that lie ahead...To date, we’ve juggled future-facing work and priorities with continued upkeep of Halo’s Xbox 360 legacy services. 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."

It is clear that as the numbers of players currently on legacy servers gradually decreases, the practicality of balancing the time and effort into maintaining services on Xbox 360 titles while creating future titles at the same time is just not feasible according to 343 Industries:

"That’s not to say we don’t value and care about everyone who plays Halo – we absolutely do. But, as with any business, our teams must continually weigh needs against available resources (time, people, expertise, etc.) and prioritize on areas and opportunities that yield the greatest impact."

343 Industries will be shutting down legacy services in one year, December 2021. The shutdown will progress over a 4-phase period:

Phase One – Fall 2019 

• One-time migration of over 6M pieces of Halo Xbox 360 Legacy UGC data to Halo: The Master Chief Collection  

Phase Two – December 2020 (WE ARE HERE) 

• Initial notification to players

• Digital sales of Halo Xbox 360 titles are halted 

• *Halo Xbox 360 DLC can still be acquired at no cost

Phase Three – 2021 

• Continued messaging and reminders throughout the year across Halo channels 

Phase Four – December 2021 *(TBD, no sooner than 1 year from the date of today’s blog) 

• Halo Xbox 360 legacy services are turned off 

(Taken directly from halowaypoint.com)

Below is a list of the in-game services that will be left active/inactive after the shutdown.

For clarification, only the legacy editions Halo titles on Xbox 360 will be effected. The MCC Edition has been rebuilt and will not be impacted by the service shutdown.

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