Xbox 360 Is Losing Halo Game Services, But You Still Have Time To Upgrade

The aging Xbox 360 will lose support for Halo game services, it has been announced, but you'll still have time to upgrade to a newer console. Microsoft plans to end support for the Halo games released on the console, but players will still be able to play the titles — though, it notes, some game features will stop working.

The Xbox 360 was released in 2005; it is quite obsolete at this point, but you may still have one around. If you're playing Halo with this model, you'll need to upgrade or deal with the loss of features in around December 2021, according to 343 Industries.

The company announced its plan to shutter the game services late next year, explaining that a considerable amount of effort goes into maintaining these legacy services — effort that would be better utilized for the franchise's current and future projects, the company notes.

In addition, the team points out that month-over-month use of the Xbox 360 Halo game services is dropping, making it increasingly pointless for the company to continue supporting the services. 'Every cycle spent maintaining and supporting Xbox 360 legacy services is time and energy not spent on the future of Halo,' 343 Industries explained in a blog post.

The game services shutdown will take place over a few phases, the first of which happened last fall, followed by phase two, which is the current announcement. The third phase will take place next year in the form of 'continued messaging' about the shutdown, followed by the final phase: the services being shuttered in December 2021.