343 Industries have drawn the ire of fans after a disastrous mid-season update reveal that announced nothing and fixed very little.
Halo Infinite's first season is well underway, having fixed the early Battle Pass progression issues, introduced tons of different events such as Fracture: Tenrai and Cyber Showdown and, now, a mid-season update. Except, this latest announcement from 343 Industries has been a little less of a success for the developers. There may be "improvements" coming in this week's update, but it doesn't look like we'll be getting any new content.
From the networking improvements, to campaign and anti-cheat improvements, the word of the day is "improvements". Not "new" or "additional", but "improvements" to systems that should have worked (in many cases) better in the first place. Now, we're going to go into the details of this mid-season announcement, but we wanted to start by stating something that should be bleedingly obvious to everyone: we understand why Reddit is ablaze with anger over this announcement.
That being said, it does seem that some of you are getting perhaps a bit too passionate about all of this. Ultimately, it is good that 343 Industries are making these changes, as it shows that they are listening to the community and improving the game incrementally but progressively. Season 2 might not be out until May, and we probably won't get that rumored story DLC or the highly-anticipated Forge Mode for quite some time, but let us remind you that Halo Infinite's multiplayer and campaign modes are both fantastic and worthy of your continued attention.
Halo Infinite's First Mid-Season Update
In a post made to Halo Waypoint, 343 Industries have confirmed that some major changes are coming to Halo Infinite in what they have termed as a "Mid-Season Update". Curiously, it does not seem like any new content is actually coming in the update, with the focus being placed primarily on stability, anti-chat improvements and networking.
Regarding the network, 343 Industries confirmed that "next week’s update will add new telemetry that specifically focuses on gathering more data around instances of being shot around walls or corners. It will also have targeted improvements to reduce rubberbanding around vehicles and vehicle debris. This work will help us as we continue to improve the online experience, but it does not signify the end of the road."
There will be additional changes to the game's first-person animations, fixing some related frame rate issues and interpolating errors. This goes hand in hand with stability and performance fixes that will improve frame rates on both PC and console, though we are yet to be informed on the specifics of these changes. In terms of campaign improvements, 343 Industries had the following to say:
We’ll see multiple improvements in the Campaign experience. Whether it’s addressing issues with Achievements unlocking or returning to the game via Quick Resume, the team has been working on a handful of fixes for campaign since launch and there will be more on the way.
The developers are also increasing the Motion Tracker's range in Big Team Battle from 18m to 24m and are introducing "multiple improvements to our anti-cheat systems" in the update. As you can see, there's nothing here about new content. Whether that means we will (or will not) receive new content is unclear at this stage. We'll have to wait and see.
>Update Feb 24:Multiple improvements in the Campaign experience. There will be multiple improvements to our anti-cheat systems in this update.The range of the Motion Tracker in Big Team Battle will be increasing from 18m to 24m.Stability improvements. #HaloInfinite pic.twitter.com/44EBHekdnd
— Halo Infinite Leaks & News (@HaloNoticiasMX) February 19, 2022
When Will Halo Infinite's Mid-Season Update Release?
We will be receiving Halo Infinite's first-ever Mid-Season Update on February 24, this Thursday. It is unclear whether anything else will come to the game with this update in a similar vein to game franchises like Call of Duty, which add a ton of content in their mid-season updates. Yet again, as we keep repeated, we'll have to wait and see.
Gamers Are Unhappy With Halo Infinite's Mid-Season Update
Redditors, gamers and even esports players are seriously unhappy with 343 Industries Mid-Season Update announcement. Indeed, Tyler Ganza of HCS team eUnited said that "those guys [343] are trolling I have no idea what they're doing, but the most recent blog post was laughable". By the "most recent blog post", Ganza is clearly referring to the aforementioned Halo Waypoint post.
The update has drawn particular ire on the Halo Subreddit r/halo, with players complaining about the belief many hold that 343 Industries receive good faith from the community and critics despite a lack of new maps, weapons and content. One Redditor, CleetusTheDragon, even referenced the Master Chief Collection, stating that for that game "bug fixes were considered seasonal content".
Ultimately, though, we are not in agreement with many of these complaints. Generally we agree that it would be nice to receive new content, and 343 Industries are not above criticism for the many problems that continue to plague Halo Infinite, but it is important to keep a few things in mind. This is a game complete with ten fantastic maps, tons of weapons, cosmetics, and gameplay options, a great campaign, and has free-to-play multiplayer. There's a lot to love here, and we're certain that new content is coming, we just might not see it in the mid-season update.