Halo Infinite‘s Big Team Battle playlist hasn’t functioned properly in some time, much to the dismay of those looking to play it. Fortunately, the wait is almost over, as 343 Industries has offered a statement about these issues, and has indicated that a patch should be hitting Halo Infinite sometime next week.
For all the intense gunfights and strategic map movement that Arena Halo requires, the one thing that mode generally lacks is vehicles. Enter Big Team Battle, the longtime playlist that covers the third essential pillar of the Halo multiplayer formula, offering multidimensional vehicular combat that just doesn’t always work in Arena modes.
Traditionally, Big Team Battle has been a 8v8 experience, but Halo Infinite upped the ante, making it 12v12, in turn allowing for much more destruction and chaos than previously possible. For the last month or so, sadly, Big Team Battle hasn’t worked in Halo Infinite, with most players being unable to be placed into matches.
343 Industries has announced that a hotfix that will resolve the ongoing Big Team Battle problems should be coming to Halo Infinite sometime next week. The news comes from the official Halo Support Twitter account, in a quote tweet of a previous message stating 343 Industries was working on the Big Team Battle fix. “The hotfix to improve Big Team Battle matchmaking stability is planned to release mid next week,” Halo Support writes. In addition to the hotfix, in recognition of the ongoing inconvenience, 343 Industries is giving every player that logs into the game in the month the patch is live 5 XP Boosts and Challenge Swaps.
There are two reoccurring reactions to this news in the replies to Halo Support’s tweet. On side contains the people who are excited about the hotfix, thanking 343 Industries for finally addressing the issue, while other is full of people who are disappointed by the 343 Industries’ consolation offerings, having already completed Halo Infinite‘s battle pass and having no need for XP Boosts. Challenge Swaps are still useful after reaching max rank in the battle pass, however, as they can be used during Halo Infinite‘s events or while trying to earn the usual weekly reward.
This is a necessary step in retaining Halo Infinite‘s player base, and could not be more perfectly timed. Next week starts Halo Infinite‘s Cyber Showdown event, bringing a handful of synth-wave cosmetics—like a digital Mohawk—to the game as well as a new game mode.
The combination of Big Team Battle’s return plus Cyber Showdown’s cool-looking cosmetics is the combo Halo Infinite desperately needs to bring back the players who may have fallen off.
Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
