Xbox quietly killed support for its biggest game last year and nobody noticed

Xbox may have ceased development for one of its biggest games last year and it’s seemingly gone unnoticed.

Without question, one of the biggest video game properties under the Microsoft umbrella is Halo, originally developed by Bungie. When Halo: Combat Evolved was released for the original Xbox in 2001, it changed the FPS genre on consoles forever. Smooth FPS gameplay was only possible on PCs with games such as DOOM, Wolfenstein 3D and Quake all designed with the mouse and keyboard in mind. Those three titles were available on some consoles, but the gameplay always felt a little clunky.

Check out the Halo: The Master Chief Collection trailer below!

What Bungie did was make the FPS genre feel natural on the console using a control pad, unlike a lot of the clunky games that came before. Halo: Combat Evolved also propelled the Xbox console into the home of the masses with gamers having fond memories of local co-op battling it out in iconic maps such as Blood Gulch.

The Halo series would later launch hit after hit across multiple console generations with arguably its best game yet arriving in 2007 with Halo 3 for the Xbox 360. This third numbered entry not only refined the campaign co-op of the series but also offered some of the best competitive multiplayer moments of many fans' lives. I, for one, lost countless hours being killed over and over again in Valhalla. Then Halo 4 arrived in 2012 with developmental duties now being handled by 343 Industries.

Thankfully, just two years later (despite a very rocky launch), Halo: The Master Chief Collection would arrive, a place that would eventually become home to all the mainline entries in the Halo series with revolving playlists for the best campaign moments, as well as all the multiplayer maps and modes we could handle, in one place.

Since the launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection in 2014, 343 Industries has supported this glorious hub with new content and quality-of-life updates, right up until the present day. However, reports are now making the rounds that the support has ended, what’s more, that support may have ended in 2023 without any of us realising. The last major update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection reportedly arrived in July 2023.

According to video game content creator and news reporter, Rebs Gaming, tweeted: “One reason Microsoft ended Halo TMCC development last July is because it lacks a revenue stream. 343 Industries wasn’t happy with Microsoft’s decision. By the way, 343 tried to create revenue for TMCC with purchasable Spartan Points but scrapped the idea due to backlash from Halo fans.”

If true, that kind of makes sense. After all, Microsoft is a business and businesses are about making money and do not exist for the enjoyment of fans. If 343 Industries did fail in its attempts to implement microtransactions into Halo: The Master Chief Collection with new skins, that backlash may have done unforeseen damage.

It remains to be seen whether all focus from 343 Industries will be on Halo Infinite or the development of the next game in the series. Only time will tell. Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo Infinite are available now on PC, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One as well as to subscribers of Xbox Game Pass.