It's 2021, and Halo 3 is still going strong. Its inclusion in The Master Chief Collection has been accompanied by a generous amount of developer support, which is certainly unusual for a game of Halo 3's age. The game even got a new map this year, with one more coming at a later date.
For the upcoming Halo Infinite, 343 Industries has no plans for a sequel. In fact, the game is slated to be the last Halo game for the foreseeable future. That said, multiplayer will be a critical component in keeping the brand alive and well following the game's release. While 343 appears to be taking steps in the right direction by making Halo Infinite's multiplayer free-to-play, the developer should draw from its own experience of supporting the antiquated Halo 3 when considering how to keep fans invested in Halo Infinite.
Halo 3's Post-Launch Support, 14 Years Later
Since The Master Chief Collection hit PC in 2019, seasons were introduced to the collection. Each season brings a variety of new cosmetic options and gameplay tweaks to every Halo game, and one game that has seen a plentiful amount of new content is Halo 3. On some occasions, these updates have done a lot to breathe new life into the classic title.
One of the bigger changes to Halo 3 came when Halo 3: ODST hit PC last year. For the first time ever, new weapons came to Halo 3 when ODST's SOCOM pistol, silenced SMG, and Brute Plasma Rifle arrived in the game. As effectively superior versions of the Magnum, base SMG, and vanilla Plasma Rife, respectively, each proved to be valuable additions to the game's multiplayer. A limited-time mode, Recon Slayer, also featured two of these weapons front and center, encouraging players to try playing Halo 3 in new ways even 14 years into the game's life.
With the launch of Season 6 of The Master Chief Collection, 343 actually brought a new map to Halo 3 with Waterfall, a map originally built for the canceled Halo Online. What's especially significant about Waterfall is that it is the first new map to be added to the game since the Mythic Map Pack released in 2009, and leaks from earlier this year indicate it probably won't be the last.
Adding new content to competitive shooters challenges the community. When weapons are added, players have to figure out which weapons work best on which maps; when maps are added, they have to learn item spawn locations, take note of the layout, and observe how certain areas can be exploited. 343's commitment to challenging players is part of why Halo 3 still has a sufficient amount of staying power even over a decade later.
How Halo Infinite Can Learn From Halo 3
Halo Infinite's multiplayer has to be well-curated for it to carry the Halo flag for the next however many years, and the recent treatment of Halo 3 could be a blueprint of how to do that. As cosmetics have become a big part of many online games, it seems likely that seasons and the cosmetic rewards they reap could make a return. The ideal scenario would be for Halo Infinite to take after The Master Chief Collection by not featuring microtransactions, but given that the game is going free-to-play when it launches, it's hard to imagine it not having any post-download monetization options.
But even so, there are still several other ways 343 can update Halo Infinite to keep it consistently fresh, while not charging fans anything extra; new weapons are certainly one way. Given the vast amount of weapons and weapon variants in the Halo series, it seems simply impossible for Halo Infinite to feature every weapon across the series' history at launch. Reintroducing weapons from various past Halo games would be a great start for post-launch content, but it'd also be nice to see weapons that were cut from previous games, such as the machete from Halo: Combat Evolved, retooled and reimplemented in Halo: Infinite. In an ideal world, remastered versions of iconic Halo maps like Blood Gulch and Guardian would make a post-launch appearance too, in addition to completely new maps.
Another cue the game can take from The Master Chief Collection is the inclusion of limited-time modes. Having LTMs built around some of Halo Infinite's new content during the time of its introduction is a surefire way to communicate the biggest and best changes to come to the game, and why players should log on ASAP.
A steady stream of content is pivotal to Halo Infinite's long-term success. Fortunately, 343 seems to have learned the basics of that from its time supporting Halo 3 in its re-released state. Hopefully, that same level of commitment to the community transfers over to Halo Infinite when it launches, allowing the game to enjoy a long period of success that can carry the Halo franchise for the foreseeable future.
Halo Infinite is expected to be released in Fall 2021 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.