Halo Xbox 360 services are being sunset in December 2021

What you need to know

• 343 Industries has announced that most Halo Xbox 360 services are being sunset permanently in December of 2021.
• This primarily includes matchmaking and muiltiplayer servers, but also includes some features like File Share and player customization. The specifics of what will be sunset varies by game.
• You can play modernized versions of these games with Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo Wars: Definitive Edition.

Halo developer 343 Industries has announced in a blog post that the vast majority of online services for the Xbox 360 Halo games are being sunset permanently in December 2021, approximately one year from now. This primarily includes multiplayer services like matchmaking and online servers (Custom Games will still work), but some other features, such as File Share and player customization, may be disabled as well. It's important to note that this will affect every Xbox 360 copy of these games, including the ones being played through Xbox One backwards compatibility.

The specific features that are being sunset vary by game, but thankfully 343 Industries has created a handy chart that makes it perfectly clear what each game will and won't have after the services are turned off. You can have a look below:

Overall, it's a bummer to see that the legacy Halo experiences are losing support, but it's completely understandable considering that the majority of these games are over a decade old. Thankfully, fans of these games will still be able to play them with their full suite of content in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which is available on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One consoles, and Windows 10 PCs for $40. Additionally, fans of the original Halo Wars can also play the game's multiplayer with Halo Wars: Definitive Edition. It's a good thing we have these games to play while we wait for Halo Infinite!