I’m sure many veteran gamers remember their halcyon days of a great time online with Halo games on the Xbox 360. However, as the saying goes, all good things must eventually end, and 343 Industries has officially pulled the plug on Halo‘s Xbox 360 server.

The official statement from the website reads:

On January 13, 2022, Xbox 360 game servers for Halo games were turned off (sunsetting the service). This means that while these games can still be played, online services such as challenges and file share are no longer available.

Affected games include:

• Halo Reach
• Halo 4
• Halo 3
• Halo 3: ODST
• Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary
• Spartan Assault
• Halo Wars

This only affects Xbox 360 versions of the game. Games in Halo The Master Chief Collection will not be impacted. The Halo titles available within MCC have been rebuilt and remastered to leverage different, modernized services.

However, if you are using the backwards compatibility features of the Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S to play Xbox 360 games, you will also be affected. The underlying software for those is still the original Xbox 360 content and relies on legacy online services for some functions.

It really looks like Microsoft is looking to the future. Just last week, they announced that they have stopped production of the Xbox One since the end of 2020. Maybe the next Halo game will be a next-gen exclusive and no longer cross-platform? Fingers crossed.