In light of Halo: Infinite‘s approaching release, 343 Industries has announced that the upcoming season eight will be Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s last season.
As posted on the official Halo Waypoint blog and reported on by Eurogamer, 343 made the announcement yesterday. There’s no specific release date for season eight other than “this fall,” but the developers have said it will be the game’s last season.
343’s publishing team lead producer Michael Fahrny explained that “as a studio it’s not ideal to run and continue shipping seasonal updates for two different multiplayer titles concurrently.” As such, once Infinite‘s free-to-play multiplayer is live, The Master Chief Collection will no longer receive seasonal updates.
That’s not to say that the game won’t be supported any longer, though. Fahrny assured fans that The Master Chief Collection will continue to see updates, including expanded modding support, bug fixes, and new features, after Infinite‘s release. He said these updates will “land when they’re ready” rather than following a season-like structure. All future updates will be free and it seems as though they’ll last at least through the end of 2022.
Fahrny ended the announcement by assuring fans that more specific information will be available early next year after the development team has a chance to work through everything and create plans for the future. But until then, they hope that players will enjoy season eight when it launches later this fall.