Halo Infinite has been seeing largely positive reviews from critics, with many praising its combat, open-world feel, and Grapple Shot, there has been a slew of player concerns since the multiplayer facet of the new title dropped last month. Over the weekend Brian Jarrard, Halo Infinite‘s community director, jumped onto the title’s official subreddit to write an extremely lengthy response to many of the game’s issues. 343 Industries has a history of being open and honest with players and often takes to social media to respond directly to complaints and ideas, and much of what was written in this post is helping to see things in a new light.
In the post, Jarrard claims to empathize with the many frustrations being expressed surrounding certain aspects of multiplayer mode. He does, however, condemn those who are personally singling out 343 developers and sending hate and threats. The subreddit has been temporarily locked due to toxicity, which Jarrard mentions directly.
“Call me a shill, a liar, corp speak, etc. as you want, but I’ve never lied to this community and never will,” he states. “And I’m not saying myself are 343 are a ‘victim’ in any way – that’s yet another narrative some folks here have chosen to apply. It’s my job to come in here, listen, frankly take it on the chin, and despite personally being very put off by the way in which many are expressing themselves, still ensure that we are advocating for players internally. We do that regardless of it being positive or negative and always will.”
Jarrard speaks to his own disappointment with the lack of Slayer mode, mentioning that 343 at large wanted to include it. It seems that many decisions had to be made due to the mode being free-to-play, with concerns around progression and playlists stemming from “UI limitations.”
Halo Infinite will officially launch on December 8, 2021. The game will be available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S and will also be playable on Xbox Game Pass on launch day. Released three weeks ahead of schedule, the free-to-play multiplayer mode broke the record for Xbox Game Studios on Steam with over 270,000 concurrent players.