Halo Infinite Adds Two More Classic Maps To 'Squad Battle' Playlist

So many great memories from both these maps. The new leadership at 343 is really making a lot of great choices.

The only issue I have is they don’t shout about these things. Unless you follow Reddit or an Xbox site you’re not going to know. The whole thing is super low key. Any other live service would throw a marketing campaign behind some of this stuff. I honestly don’t think 343 will “market” this stuff until the season 5 trailer.

@ParsnipHero I mean, if by any other live-service game you mean likes of R6, CoD etc. The numbers and money they are pulling is orders of magnitude higher than Halo.
I think that 343 is being kept under a strict financial diet after all the money that has been pumped into them over the past couple of years. The fact that they had to cancel the CGI cutscenes for seasonal content clearly shows that there is very limited money on the table for them.
With the time and money and 343 had the higher ups probably expected to get a huge live-service game and the best they got was a game played by a small dedicated community. So 343 will probably not have a big budget unless they really convince the higher ups that they can get it done. But with the new management and some of the better decisions over the past few months I think they are on the right track.

Squad battle, and these maps they're adding, are the only reason I play Infinite anymore. Hopefully they can keep it up.

@BrilliantBill yea, obviously big flashy in-game trailers for new features are what you expect from new seasons and limited time events. You see it time and time again with Apex Legends and their collection events during a season.

I think the bare minimum should be a blog post on Halo Waypoint though. Something which outlines what's happening this week in the game. For example, Starboard is being taken out of ranked rotation in favor of Catalyst. I have to go to reddit for people to report this stuff. Which then gets reported by Pure Xbox and maybe Eurogamer.

I suppose even a blog post on Waypoint is not really going to attract general public attention. Halo Infinite really is a product for those who remain at this point. I do see on Reddit these kinds of updates bringing back people on the Halo subreddit but again, not really the broader audience.

@InterceptorAlpha what's your experience in Squad Battle? I know I go on and on about Squad Battle or Infinite in general but I've found the games to be;

• 80% one sided (for my team or the enemy)
• 20% balanced

A lot of team mates quit out if it's going sideways. It makes for a very frustrating experience. I think the matchmaking needs a lot of work for this playlist.

I've found myself playing Squad Battle a little less than since it launched and doing a bit of 4v4 Team Slayer and Quick Play or if I'm really looking for a change Tactical Slayer and Super Fiesta (which I sometimes refer to BS-ta).

@ParsnipHero I don't know that my ratio would break down like that.

I have definitely gotten more Steaktaculars than normal. I'd say mine is closer to 50/50.

Though part of that could be the hours we play. Playing when more people are on will yield more balanced games since there's a greater pool to balance against.

@InterceptorAlpha that’s fair. I play on US east coast in the evening so you’d assume there’s a pretty good pool of people.

I’ve had some real howlers.

@ParsnipHero Strange. We're playing the same time zone then. During the week, if I have time, I'm normally playing around 9PM or 10PMish.

@ParsnipHero Sadly yes, Infinite is only for the small dedicated Halo fanbase that still cares about it due to their past investment in the franchise. Halo has struggled with becoming a "thing" for the masses for more than a decade now. Halo 5 being an exclusive on the worst-selling console of the previous gen and the misgivings of development/launch/support of Infinite surely hasn't helped things either.
On the topic of announcement of details, I don't think any gamers outside of the ca. 1 million subscribers of r/Halo and its sorrounding Reddits (like r/HaloStory etc) are keeping tabs on the game/franchise. Investing large sums in lavish trailers/teasers will not bring more people.

Does Infinite have Firefight yet?