‘Halo Infinite’ fans thanked for patience as Winter Update finally arrives

343 Industries has shared a statement thanking Halo Infinite fans for their patience after long-awaited new features finally arrived.

The comments come as the game finally launched its major Winter Update this week, delivering previously delayed features including Mission Replay, a Forge open beta and campaign co-op.

The update arrived after Matt Booty, head of Microsoft Studios, admitted that the 2021 shooter “fell short” on delivering post-launch content, and described the game as “stumbling” at the finish line.

In their new statement, 343’s community writer Alex Wakeford said: “For now, the last thing we want to say is thank you for your support over the past year. We know it certainly hasn’t been the smoothest or quickest ride, but with the Winter Update we have an opportunity to show our thanks for the community’s dedication and feedback which serves as the north star guiding us to evolve the player experience of Halo Infinite.

“The Winter Update marks a major step forward for our game and studio, but this is just the first step of that evolution. The team is actively working on key player experience priorities across the game to address areas of feedback, and we are targeting another game update before the end of this year.”

Wakeford concluded: “Your support is greatly appreciated, and we can’t wait to turn this corner with you all in 2023 as we look to shorter seasons, a more regular stream of content, and bigger things to come.”

While Halo Infinite enjoyed a high player count at launch, the multiplayer shooter was later criticised for an underwhelming progression system and issues with the game’s second season.

“We’ve got to recover there,” acknowledged Booty in his recent statement. “The burden is on us.”

Booty went on to explain that part of the reason Halo Infinite fell short with fans was due to a lack of content for players to stay with after the game launched. “These days, with a game like Halo Infinite, shipping the game is just the beginning,” explained Booty. “There has got to be a plan for content sustain.”

Elsewhere, Halo Infinite’s PC version is set to get ray-tracing in March of next year. Halo Infinite will support ray traced shadows across both the arena and big team battle modes. For now, it seems that the update is limited to the game’s multiplayer.

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