As Halo 3's Xbox 360 Servers Are Turned Off Forever, Fans Share Tributes To Bungie's Classic

It's the end of an era, as January 13 marks the server shutdown date for Halo 3 and other classic, much-loved Xbox 360 Halo games. 343 Industries is "sunsetting" the original Xbox 360 online servers for Halo, Halo 4, Halo: Reach, and other Halo titles as it prioritizes newer games.

While Halo 3 and the others remain playable online through Halo: The Master Chief Collection, the original Xbox 360 servers are now offline for good. Have a look at the chart below, created by 343 and shared online, to see a full accounting for Xbox 360 services going offline. Note that the chart says "December 2021" because this was originally the end-date before it was pushed to January.

Tributes to Halo 3 poured in across social media, and you can see a sampling of some of the responses below. People shared heartfelt messages about what Halo 3 meant to them. The original Halo 3 matchmaking lobby showed a heatmap of where in the world people were connecting from and how many players were online at a given time, and now the lights have gone out and the player population has reached 0. Truly the end of an era.

As mentioned, Halo multiplayer support for Halo 3, Halo 4, Reach, and others remains available through The Master Chief Collection, and in the case of Halo 3, there are even new maps, weapons, and skins to use that weren't found in the original game.

As for Halo Infinite, the game's Fracture Tenrai multiplayer event recently returned. There is also a new Warthog skin for Game Pass members to unlock. Looking ahead, 343 is planning to release a fix for Big Team Battle's issues soon, while an update to get rid of cheaters is targeted for February.