Today, Halo Infinite is four years old, and that makes me very sad. An announcement shared today from the official Halo account on X was meant to be celebratory, but I found it depressing. How can you feel optimistic about Halo in 2025?<\/p>\n
Four years of Infinite memories, Infinite friendships, Infinite fun \ud83c\udf82<\/p>\n
Happy birthday, Halo Infinite! \ud83c\udf89 pic.twitter.com\/7gxwl6ZVhH<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Halo (@Halo) December 8, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Halo Infinite is the most recent entry in the iconic Xbox franchise, and it was predictably hyped up before launch. Its open-world campaign offered a unique take on the franchise formula and seemed poised to crack open the Halo universe, with plans for it to be the central hub of new Halo content for years after its launch. But as its release date crept closer, the sixth mainline entry in the Master Chief saga strained under the pressure. A 2020 gameplay reveal unintentionally created a meme factory,<\/a> and a month later, Halo Infinite was delayed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Halo Infinite finally launched in December 2021 (though the multiplayer released a few weeks earlier), and did so without split-screen co-op and Forge, the series\u2019 map creation suite. Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) never added the additional story content we were promised\u2014instead, it\u2019ll be neatly tied up in a book releasing next week<\/a>. I held out hope that Infinite would eventually become the massive Master Chief universe we were promised, but it never did.<\/p>\n Just last month, it was announced that the studio would cease development<\/a> on the sci-fi shooter, shortly after Halo: Campaign Evolved, a ground-up remake of the original game\u2019s campaign<\/a>, was revealed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though there are, reportedly, other Halo games in development at Halo Studios, the current state of the franchise is a massive bummer. Campaign Evolved, due out next year, may bring Halo to PS5 for the first time, and it may look damn good, but we all know it\u2019s just a nostalgia retread of a 25-year-old game. It won\u2019t include multiplayer, just the first game\u2019s campaign and a few new missions. It will offer four-person co-op for the first time ever. But aside from Campaign Evolved, there\u2019s no news on what to expect next from Halo Studios.<\/p>\n So we return to Infinite, the most recent game in the franchise. Sadly, Infinite\u2019s open-world campaign is not worth a revisit, especially without couch co-op or a continuation of Master Chief\u2019s story (the story DLC was confirmed canned back in 2023<\/a>). Infinite\u2019s multiplayer has that Halo special sauce\u2014it feels great and can be a chaotic blast, but there just aren\u2019t that many people playing anymore. So if you\u2019re like me and only play a handful of modes, you\u2019ll quickly find yourself stuck in a loop: the same few maps, the same few players. You can only get sniped across one of a few Big Team Battle maps by EliteLover6969 so many times before it grows old.<\/p>\n