An alpha build of Halo Infinite Season 3 appears to have made its way online, hinting at a year's worth of content that 343 Industries is planning to add to its popular FPS. The news of the leak arrived just as Halo Infinite launched a new Noble Intention event, in addition to introducing playlists for community-created Forge maps.
As is the case with most modern online games, each new multiplayer update for Halo Infinite goes through fairly extensive testing prior to launch. A large-scale playtesting operation makes it exceedingly difficult for 343 Industries to run a tight ship in regard to leaks. Details about Halo Infinite content hence had a tendency to surface prior to their official announcements since before the game released in late 2021. This trend wasn't just limited to multiplayer-related features, either, as some of the earlier Halo Infinite leaks also revealed cut campaign content.
As for the leak at hand, insiders with access to the latest alpha build of Halo Infinite claim that the upcoming season will heavily focus on Iratus, a previously introduced AI construct aligned with Banished, the game's main villains. The early prototype of the upcoming update also suggests that 343 Industries is planning to position the release of the highly anticipated Infection Mode as the main event of Season 3. The series' zombie mode was last featured in 2015 Xbox One exclusive Halo 5: Guardians. Furthermore, several screenshots of two new maps code-named Forbidden and Crystal Cave made their way online as part of the same leak.
One Halo insider also revealed that 343 Industries is planning to add a new weapon with some distinct animations to Halo Infinite. However, that novelty doesn't appear to be part of the Season 3 roadmap, with the source claiming that the unnamed weapon is only planned to debut in Season 6. Other rumors stemming from the leak suggest that the developer is currently working on over 20 new maps, as well as additional start menu and matchmaking screen backgrounds.
This newest info dump isn't the first occasion on which the game's third-season content prematurely made its way online. A known industry insider already leaked two Halo Infinite Season 3 maps back in November. Both of those levels—called Cliffhanger and Oasis—are expected to be added to the game over the course of 2023.
The Season 3 leak dovetails with a recent report that 343 Industries canceled plans for new Halo Infinite story content. All future updates to the game are now expected to be focused exclusively on its multiplayer features, with insiders claiming that the developer scraped its work on single-player content in the aftermath of a major restructuring that saw it lay off dozens of staffers, including some executives.
Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Halo Leaks / Twitter, Surasia / Twitter, Reddit