Releasing a new Halo game without classic multiplayer playlists is one of the dumbest decisions that 343 Industries has made for the launch of the franchise’s latest installment, but luckily, the studio will be addressing the tremendous oversight as early as next week.
As community director Brian Jarrard noted on the official Halo subreddit, Halo Infinite will be getting new playlists on December 14 that will see the return of various classic multiplayer game types that Halo fans have enjoyed over the course of the franchise. They include Slayer, the hugely popular mode that encourages players to kill as many other Spartans as possible, as well as Fiesta, Free-For-All, and SWAT, the latter of which strips players of shields and motion trackers.
Per Jarrard on r/Halo:
hey everyone – Last weekend I said I’d be back once we had updates to share around near term playlist plans for Halo Infinite. I’m happy to report that a Slayer playlist is officially locked and loaded for the update next week. Four new playlists: Slayer, Fiesta, FFA, and Tactical Slayer (SWAT) will all be added via a services update on Tuesday, Dec. 14.
As I noted last week, the team’s original plans for a Slayer playlist included a variety of new variants that weren’t going to be ready in time to deploy before the holiday break. To address player feedback for Slayer in the near term, we’ll be releasing a basic Slayer offering to start and will look to bolster and expand with more variants in a future update.
Next week’s update will also include adjustments to challenges including removing some particularly frustrating mode-specific ones, reducing some requirements for others, making the weekly ultimate challenge less intensive (getting there is tough enough), and adding brand new challenges specific to the new playlists. Personally I’m eager to check out a new challenge category that’s based on accumulating player score (a small initial step towards ‘performance based XP’). We’ll have some more details to share on Halo Waypoint next week.
Lastly, on a semi-related note – please know that the team is aware of and actively investigating reports of intermittent hiccups affecting some players in BTB over the last few days. Additionally, the team is continuing to review Ranked matchmaking and player feedback around potential anomalies.
Thank you to everyone who has shared constructive feedback and filed support tickets for issues you’re running into! More to come. Have a great weekend!