With the six-month anniversary of Halo Infinite only a couple weeks away, the newest entry in Microsoft's flagship gaming franchise is already home to a rapidly growing competitive scene with the shooter's top players duking it out with one another. 343 Industries recently began to reveal several details about the game's upcoming Season 2 with the long-awaited co-op game mode set to release in August and the popular Forge mode planned for the month after. Now, as part of the second season festivities, several skins based on some of the Halo Championship Series' iconic roster will soon be added.
With Halo Infinite's professional circuit in full swing following the release of the game in November, the world of Halo esports has already seen several major events throughout the first few months of the game's life. Last weekend's HCS Kansas City saw American esports team Sentinels capture its first victory at an HCS major event, beating out other iconic esports organizations like Cloud9 and FaZe Clan to take home the $140,000 prize. Now, with Halo Infinite gearing up for its second in-game competitive season, players will soon be able to represent their favorite HCS teams in-game as well.
343 Industries first revealed the esports-themed skins on Friday during HCS Kansas City's festivities with the developer announcing nine different teams would be receiving their own skins within Halo Infinite. Alongside teams like the Kansas City winner Sentinels and iconic organizations like FaZe Clan and Cloud9, several European teams will also be represented in game including the Germany-based G2 Esports and UK-based Fnatic. Players will be able to purchase the bundles starting tomorrow, May 3, with the package including skins for assault rifles, sidekicks, Warthogs, and a weapon charm with the team's logo.
Halo Infinite's new esports-based skins comes as Season 2 is looking to add several new online features to the popular multiplayer game. Season 2's launch tomorrow will feature the addition of three new game modes to Halo Infinite with the return of the popular King of the Hill mode being joined by two new game modes, the territory-based Land Grab and the long-rumored battle royale mode in Last Spartan Standing. Alongside these major additions, Infinite is also adding two new maps, called Catalyst and Breaker, for the game's upcoming competitive season.
Halo Infinite's new season and new game modes will look to be a shot in the arm for a game that has seen its player count shrinking since the game's highly-anticipated release in November. Recent numbers on Steam have shown Halo Infinite's player count has taken a massive dive from peaking over 250,000 players shortly after launch to just under 6,000 in recent weeks. Slow content updates mixed with bi-annual seasonal changes compared to other games like Apex Legends' four seasons a year have seen Infinite's player count steadily dropping, a trend Infinite's Season 2 will look to curb.
Halo Infinite is available now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S