Halo Infinite's Multiplayer Is About To Get New Playlists

343:

Let's talk about Halo Infinite playlists!
We've been reading your feedback, and we're working on plans to add Fiesta, Tactical Slayer (SWAT), and Free-For-All playlists as we speak.

[Atticus_finch]

So what were they doing this entire last year. Fixing Craig's face.

[Snookies12]

Uhh, they've been working on the campaign... The game's multi-player component launched earlier than expected and you're acting like they haven't done any work at all.

[Atticus_finch]

I totally made up the fact that the game is missing components every other Halo has had at launch. Right...

[Snookies12]

@Atticus_finch - What missing components? Please elaborate, and if it's anything regarding the multi-player, my point still stands that it launched early. It does sound like you're "totally making up the fact that it's missing components." Again, it launched early, and they are adding so much more down the line. They have already put in a lot of effort to correct initial mistakes based on fan input. Within the first week and a half of the game being live they've changed battle pass progression twice and gave us a limited event game mode. Dev response time has been amazing, and I personally really disliked 343 Industries before they launched this game's multi-player.

[ChubbyBlade]

No, Atticus is right. It launches Wednesday, the multiplayer, as already stated by 343, is launch feature complete.

It’s missing infection, swat, slayer, assault, forge, co op, individual playlists, custom games don’t work properly, the customization that was always included day 1 is now $20 per set, the campaign launches without everything mentioned above.

It’s not a feature complete product.

The multiplayer plays best since 3 but we need to stop acting like it has a boatload of content. It doesn’t. Halo 5 launched bare bones and even it had more content.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

I feel like these basic modes should have been there for launch, but at least some player's worst fears of having to wait until the end of the first season for this stuff isn't true.

Have they ever said anything about adding in new maps over the next few months?

[ChubbyBlade]

No big updates until may. Games going to die really fast if they don’t stop drip feeding things. You can’t rip out basic features from the last 20 years and then drip feed it back in to keep people playing. That’s just dumb. They should be making NEW modes.

[Eamon]

This is pretty much the consequence of going down the F2P route.

Of course, many are asking why such basic features aren't available after 6 years of dev. I mean, Halo 3 launched with 4 player co-op, Forge, Theatre AND industry standard playlists. Not to mention, all game modes available in Custom.

Obviously, because the business model is F2P, 343i thought of ways to ensure their horrendous progression system would be complimented by the playlists. They knew that if everyone finished their "Win 3 Oddball matches" challenge, then Team Objective playlist will become a ghost town, since the majority of players would just play Team Slayer. Thus "Quick Play" playlist. A combined playlist might make sense in Ranked, but 0 sense in Social where people don't want randomised game modes, but pick the game mode of their choice then have some fun after a hard day's work.

Then we have the Lobby and UI which the former is nonexistent and the latter abysmal. In Halo 3, you could vote for which map to play on. You could chat pre-game. You could stick with the matchmade party if you thought you were a great team, and continue as the same team to the next game. None of that is available in Halo Infinite, 14 years later. This is a statement of the games industry in 2021.