‘Halo Infinite’ to feature content from the TV series
Though the TV show explores a separate universe from the games, many Halo fans wondered why “Halo Infinite,” the live-service multiplayer game, was radio silent in promoting it when it launched March 24. The Paramount Plus show, currently in its second episode of the season, reportedly set the streaming service’s record for most-watched series premiere globally, according to Deadline.
Jarrard said 343 Industries hopes the show would become an “onboarding” for people who are first fans of the show but may later be interested in the games.
“The hope is that we see a lot more cross-pollination. ‘You like the show? Check out the game, by the way it’s free to play,’ ” Jarrard said, adding that the projects work in unison to bring Halo to its biggest audience ever.
“We are looking at threads and nods we can bring into ‘Infinite’ because it is a service, and we’ll have the ability to shape and influence experiences and content over time, even though they are technically different universes and timelines,” Jarrard said. “I do think that you’ll see some eventual nods back and forth between the two … to look at ways to pull the show in fun ways.”
The long-awaited second season of “Halo Infinite” arrives May 3. 343 Industries is expected to ramp up communication on new content during the season. Time will tell whether the studio is able to create assets from the show into the game on top of all the other core issues that fans have been waiting to see addressed, including player complaints of a lack of content and de-sync issues that have messed up player timing.
Long-awaited core and popular features of the series like cooperative play for the campaign and the creative Forge mode were missing at launch and are still being worked on. Both features were expected in the second season, but 343 announced delays in early March.
That update also had Halo’s head of creative, Joseph Staten, outlining a number of priorities for the team. Maintaining employee health, addressing “issues negatively impacting the player experience” and completing the second season on time ranked atop those priorities.
Seasons in live-service games typically lasts for a handful of months. The first season of “Halo Infinite,” however, will have lasted six months by May 3, an unusual amount of time in the marketplace. By contrast, “Fortnite” updates new seasons every three months. “Halo Infinite” launched with the promise of speeding up seasonal updates, and Staten said work on the third season is also underway.
