Halo Infinite multiplayer ‘stumbled at the finish line’ says Microsoft

We’ve almost had the Halo Infinite multiplayer for a full year and now an Xbox boss has commented on the launch state of the FPS game, talking about how Microsoft and 343 Industries essentially fell at the last hurdle when they didn’t keep up the needed support or release the multiplayer game in the best way possible.

This comes from an interview with head of Xbox game studios Matt Booty, who said in the same discussion that the Starfield release date is set after Redfall in early 2023.

“The classic runner’s mistake of tripping and stumbling as you come across the finish line. We’ve got to recover there. The burden is on us,” says Booty of Halo Infinite’s launch. While by no means an entirely conclusive figure, as it’s natural for lifetime players to not stay at their release peak, Steam data on Halo Infinite’s player count is quite telling. At launch there were around 250,000 concurrent players, and for the last few months the same number hasn’t gone past 10,000. Again though, this is just Steam, so it isn’t conclusive.

“These days, with a game like Halo Infinite, shipping the game is just the beginning. There has got to be a plan for content sustain; there has got to be a plan for regular continuing engagement. And we just fell short of the plan on that,” adds Booty in the interview.

Booty made the comments on the Friends Per Second Podcast (transcribed by GameSpot), you can check out the relevant episode below (the clip in question starts at 1:12:55).

Since the Halo Infinite launch, Booty says the team at 343 Industries has “retrenched” and has changed how it wants to deliver content, to make everything more effective down the line. Booty also says the recent leadership changes have been made to try and make the Halo Infinite multiplayer fans want.

The Halo Infinite multiplayer is far from over though; a massive winter update is coming in November and adding Forge, a new match XP system, and a free battle pass that players are saying is using some heavy padding.

If you want some more Halo Infinite news, 343 recently addressed fans on adding campaign AI into Forge so they can make Firefight themselves, and Halo Infinite’s new multiplayer mode from Certain Affinity is also going to be “something big,” according to the team.