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Halo Infinite multiplayer match capacity could increase to up to 60 players

Apparently 343 Industries has been playing around with increasing player counts in Halo multiplayer from 32 to up to 60 players.

TJ Denzer

June 23, 2021 12:45 PM

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Halo Infinite is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious titles in the franchise to date. The next-gen debut of Master Chief is finally winning over its most stalwart critics and pessimists thanks to the rather impressive E3 showings. Multiplayer in particular is looking arguably quite good and 343 Industries has plans to expand more than just the gameplay. According to a recent livestream interview, it could be working towards increasing multiplayer match capacities from the usual 32 cap up to 40 to 60 players.

This tease came courtesy of 343 Industries producer Sean Swidersky, who spoke to 343’s multiplayer capacity efforts on a recent Xbox Plays livestream on the Xbox Twitch channel. According to Swidersky, 343 is “doing investigations” into increased player counts in Halo matches. There’s a lot of things to balance with such a matter, but Swidersky shared that 343 has been playing around with the possibility 40- to 60-player matches, quite a step above the usual 32-player matches Halo has typically had in past entries.

Of course, Swidersky also said nothing is concrete here. There’s still a big “if” in a lot of this consideration.

“If we can add more people, which… you can, but [also] performance on some of the other consoles…” Swidersky shared. “If we can add that kind of stuff to go higher than 16 players in these classic games and… get up to 40, 60 [players]… that’d be wild.”

Xbox and 343 Industries showed Halo Infinite’s multiplayer gameplay in full with extended details shared afterwards during E3 2021, and it all looked pretty great to say the least. While early looks had us nervous, Halo Infinite’s appearance at E3 went a long way in easing fears, at least as far as PVP goes.

With Halo Infinite still slated for a Fall 2021 release window, it will remain to be seen if 343 can make Swidersky’s teases a reality. We’ll be looking forward to seeing if it happens as details become available.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.