Some Xbox 360 Halo Games Servers are Shutting Down Today - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 13 January 2022 / 2,062 Views
343 Industries is shutting down the Xbox 360 game servers for Halo games today. The games can still be played, however, the online services will no longer be available.
The affected Xbox 360 Halo games include Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Spartan Assault, and Halo Wars.
Only the Xbox 360 versions of these games will be shutting down. The games in Halo: The Master Chief Collection are not affected by this.
Check out the chart below on how each Xbox 360 Halo game will be affected by the servers shutting down.
Read details on the servers shutting down below:
FEATURES THAT WILL CONTINUE TO BE AVAILABLE PER GAME
Halo: Reach – Campaign, Firefight, Custom games, Forge, Splitscreen, Local Area Networking (LAN), Online squads, support will vary for Achievements
Halo 4 – Campaign, Spartan ops, Custom games, Forge, Splitscreen, LAN, Online squads, support will vary for Achievements.
Halo 3 – Campaign, Custom games, Forge, Splitscreen, LAN, Online squads, Service record, Player customization, support will vary for Achievements.
Halo 3: ODST – Campaign, Firefight, Splitscreen, LAN, Online squads, Service record, and Player customization.
Halo: CE Anniversary – Campaign, Splitscreen and LAN
Halo: Spartan Assault – Campaign, Online Squads, and Matchmaking
Halo Wars – Campaign, Online Squads, and Matchmaking
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WILL BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE VERSIONS OF THESE GAMES ON XBOX ONE AND XBOX SERIES X|S BE AFFECTED?
Yes, if you are using the backwards compatibility features of a newer console to play 360 games you will be affected. The underling software is still the original Xbox 360 content and relies on legacy online services for some functions.
WHICH ACHIEVEMENTS WILL NO LONGER WORK?
Only Achievements that depend on game servers will be affected. The types of achievements that will no longer be available are:
- Achievements that require matchmaking
- Achievements based on challenges
- Legacy Avatar awards tied to certain in-game activities
WILL HALO WAYPOINT CONTINUE TO SHOW STATS FOR THE AFFECTED GAMES?
Halo Waypoint's Legacy Service Records will not reflect actions or progress made after January 13, 2022. These Service Records will still be available to view but they will not receive any service updates or new features after Xbox 360 services are disabled. Halo Support will not be able to troubleshoot inaccurate Xbox 360 stats or Legacy Service Records.
WILL HALO WARS: DEFINITIVE EDITION BE AFFECTED?
Halo Wars: DE (on Xbox One and PC) will not be impacted.
WHICH GAMES ARE AVAILABLE IN HALO: THE MASTER CHIEF COLLECTION?
Online services will continue to be available for MCC. It contains the following games:
- Halo: Reach
- Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
- Halo 3
- Halo 3: ODST
- Halo 4
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I have had so many great experiences in the last two weeks revisiting these on the original hardware. So happy to see people come back to it one last time
It's understandable, but still sad. The version of Halo 3 on MCC has been tinkered with under the hood and does not play or feel the way the original game did, which is why on those rare occasions when I wanted to play it, I always used the original game. That and having the full playlists and getting to play on more maps. But I guess that's life for ya.
So long, old friend.
The article is significantly misrepresenting the situation when it says "The affected Xbox 360 Halo games include Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Spartan Assault, and Halo Wars."
The last three are losing none of their functionality whatsoever, they have nothing but green check-marks in the grid (functions that will no longer work are represented by the red X, and those three games have no red Xs. Spots with neither a green checkmark nor a red X are functions that don't exist in that particular game.
So Halo: CE Anniversary, Spartan Assault, and Halo Wars will be 100% functional after the switch. These three games are only included in the list because the list is a comprehensive list of Halo games for Xbox 360.
The article further errs when it says "343 Industries is shutting down the Xbox 360 game servers for Halo games today. The games can still be played, however, the online services will no longer be available."
Many of them DO still have online services. Xbox 360 games that use standard Xbox Live matchmaking still all work. Games that have their own custom matchmaking servers work only so long as those servers stay up. Sometimes it's a mix, such as ODST where it's losing some online features, whereas other online features (such as Firefight) just use regular Xbox Live matchmaking and will continue to work.
I strongly recommend updating/correcting the article.
Good article!
Well I wish I knew this was going to happen, but it is what it is. I would have used Elgato to copy all my old fileshares in Reach and Halo 3, but luckily I did save some of my old stuff a year ago. I wish I got more tho... Anyway it was a good run. This is bringing back Halo 2 going offline memories. Not great feeling tbh lol. Microsoft did support the games for a while so I don't blame them. Just very mixed rn.
So many great memories for those 360 Halo games, but practically everything continues to live on in MCC with better support.
End of an Era.
Will still be able to do crazy stuff like Networked Halo: CE or Halo 2 via LAN with an OG Xbox+Xbox 360+Xbox One+Xbox Series console all together of course.
MCC is arguably the better place to play these titles anyway, even if some games still have a few "quirks".
Not really terrible news, the games were supported for a whole generation after the 360 was discontinued and all the affects games bar Spartan Ops have been ported to newer consoles and are still accessible.
Spartan Ops is in MCC, too.
Mix up on my part, I meant Spartan Assualt.
Yeah, it's definitely there. I first noticed it myself when I went to play it and couldn't seem to play even halfway to the level I had played at back in the day. At first, I assumed it was just rust. But after playing the hell out of it and still struggling, I went online and did some research and saw that it was a real thing. It probably affects some people more than others depending on how they play, but it really affected me. When I put Halo 3 back in and gave it a shot, I think the first game I was +11 lol. It was drastic in my case.
I figured whoever really wanted to know would just google it lol. But back in 2020, 343 addressed it and attempted to fix the problem, but it was not completely solved, and I haven't played the MCC version myself since summer, so it might have been solved by then (fingers crossed because I really still like to play the game). But here is what 343 said in 2020. It supposedly has to due with hit detection and bumping the game up to a frame rate that it was never intended to run in.
"The TL;DR version for those looking for a 'give it to us now' answer is, this is not a simple problem and neither is the fix for this issue," 343 said. "The devil is in the details and there's more nuanced work to be done before this fix will work for all scenarios including those where players want to adjust the game to run at 30hz, 60hz, and even 120hz."
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-halo-3-hit-detection-for-mcc-feels-bad-and-wha/1100-6480453/
Neither did I. But I DID always notice I sucked at the game compared to the original lol. I just always chalked it up to rust, or lack of commitment (I now only play when the mood strikes whereas back in the day, I would play all the time) and not the actual game itself. Then one day, like I said, I got sick of the same old levels and wanted the full playlist back, so I popped the Halo 3 disc in and... well... totally different ball game. Suddenly I was me again. After that, I searched and found out that my struggles were not anything related to my lack of skills, but the coding behind it.
Here's my question though: how can some people be so good at the MCC version when I can't? Maybe newer players who didn't get use to the original? It's frustrating.
