Halo Xbox 360 Servers To Shut Down Next Week

343 Industries is planning to shut down a host of Halo Xbox 360 servers, including those for Halo 3 and Halo 4


Published: January 7, 2022 4:19 PM /

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A Banshee flying over the battlefield in a Halo Xbox 360 title (via Master Chief Collection)

343 Industries and Microsoft are shuttering some Halo Xbox 360 servers next week. You'll still be able to enjoy single-player modes, Spartan Ops, and the Forge, but online multiplayer servers for Halo 3Halo 4Halo: Reach, and several other Xbox 360 Halo titles will be shut down.

Which Halo Xbox 360 servers are shutting down?

343 announced this decision via the Halo Waypoint website. The studio originally revealed it would be taking this step back in December, but it now provides an exact date of January 13th. In its post, 343 says that while the games it's shutting servers for can still be played, you won't be able to access online multiplayer elements, challenges, or file share services. Helpfully, 343 also provides a graphic that shows exactly which services will no longer be available in each of the games it's changing. You can check out that graphic below.

A graphic provided by 343 Industries to show which Halo Xbox 360 servers are shutting down
Some Halo Xbox 360 services will no longer be available as of next week.

The single-player and split-screen campaign (if supported) for every Halo game will still be available on Xbox 360, and online squads will still be available in every game except for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition. Matchmaking will still be available in Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo Wars, and you'll also be able to access player customization and your service record in Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST. Be sure to check which services are available before you start playing.

Is Halo: The Master Chief Collection affected by this shutdown?

In a word: no. All of the games in Halo: The Master Chief Collection have, as per 343 Industries, been "rebuilt and remastered" and are operating on different servers. Obviously, this also won't affect Halo Infinite, so you'll be able to keep enjoying the classic-style multiplayer of that game unimpeded. If, however, you're playing any of the Halo games on the Xbox 360, or you're playing them on modern consoles via backwards compatibility, these server shutdowns will affect you.

A battle with the Covenant in Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be completely unaffected by this server shutdown.

In addition, if you're playing Halo Wars: Definitive Edition, that won't be affected by the server shutdown either, so you'll be able to continue enjoying the online features in that game with no problem. All in all, given that The Master Chief Collection has all of the mainline Xbox 360 Halo titles on it (complete with mod support in some cases!) and is available on Xbox Game Pass, you should probably be playing that if you're into old-school Halo. Still, this is the end of an era to some degree. The servers for these Halo Xbox 360 games shut down on January 13th, so get your online games in before then.

Are you sad to see these Halo Xbox 360 servers go? Let us know in the comments below!

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Joe has been writing for TechRaptor for five years, and in those five years has learned a lot about the gaming industry and its foibles. He’s originally an… More about Joseph