343 Industries just hosted a new community livestream explaining what's coming to Halo Infinite in the January update (CU29) and beyond.
Starting with the update, it's coming on January 30 and it includes a lot of interesting elements.
In the livestream, we got to see some customization items including the free Mark IV core (which will simply appear in players' armory) and three helmets from the Halo TV series, KAI-125, RIZ-028, and VANNAK-134. Cross-core shoulders are also coming.
We hear that 343 Industries has decided to lean into the Operations system introduced with Season 5. The first coming in 2024 is Spirit of Fire, which will also launch on January 30 and will be followed by two more Operations during the span of the season. Spirit of Fire will have many items geared to complement the Mark IV core.
The second will be Cyber Showdown III with its "viral machine" aesthetic, followed by The Yappening II with its Grunt focus.
A new map is also coming, and it's a symmetrical arena map called Illusion.
Forge lovers will get the Covenant palette with over 70 themed objects including structure pieces, VFX, decals, and more. Players will also be able to customize colors and materials on certain biome objects and decals.
The Forge Mode Creator functionality will be introduced allowing users to create mode scripts within a Forge session and save them as modes. This makes sharing them much easier and the mode logic won't take up map budget anymore.
Of course, there will be quality-of-life updates, bug fixes, and AI toolkit improvements. More information will be released in the coming days.
For future updates, we also get to see an Alien Object Palette (the name isn't final) and the Flood Object Palette. These won't come on January 30.
Speaking of playlists in 2024, there's going to be a Big Team Battle refresh with a minimum of three maps planned for it, and other playlists like Husky Raid and Squad Battles are going to be refreshed as well. Brand new playlists are also coming including community-created maps (vetted and tested by the developers and then improved by the Forger with support from 343).
For later this year 343 is planning a Match Composer-esque feature that will allow developers to add a lot more content without it being hidden or without forcing players to scroll a long list.
Speaking of earnable content, the team is working on creating ways to earn rewards that players may have missed or part of collaborations that weren't accessible to them. It's going to be similar to Spartan Points from the Master Chief Collection.
At some point this year, 343 will also implement East Anti-Cheat in the game to combat cheating.
When the Match Composer feature releases, the game will get Ranked Slayer and Ranked Doubles permanent playlists to the matchmaking rotation alongside permanent Ranked Arena. Ranked Tactical and Ranked Sniper will continue to be in the rotation alongside two all-new experiences.
We also get to see a trailer of Halo Championship Series Year 1 Unlocked Bundles including fully unlocked armor and weapon kits, multi-use armor and weapon coatings, visors, emblems, and nameplates inspired by various eSport teams, also coming on January 30.
They're the original team bundles related to the teams that are still active in HCS, improved with the coatings compatible with all cores and weapons. Those who already purchased the bundles will get the improvements at no additional cost.
Incidentally, if you purchased the bundles related to the teams that aren't active or in HCS anymore, those won't be purchasable anew, but they will still be updated for original owners.
Year 3 of HCS will also get its own bundles with all new content related to the current teams. These will also come on January 30.
Last, but certainly not least, 343 announced that they're shifting away from Seasons. Updates will be punctuated by Operations and there won't be any more "Seasons" with dedicated season passes. In fact, the January Update won't be called "season," but simply CU29, or Content Update 29.
Speaking of the future of the franchise, we hear that, while 343 has a dedicated team working on supporting Halo Infinite, there are also more teams "accelerating toward the future and working on brand-new projects."
The developer is actually growing the team and job opportunities will be available on the Microsoft Careers website.
Halo Infinite is currently available for PC and Xbox. If you'd like to read more, you can check out our review, which awarded the game with an 8.5 out of 10.
