343 Industries wants Halo Infinite to last 10 years, promises tons of updates, content, and changes.
Back in March 2019, I predicted Halo Infinite would be a live service game. That turned out to be right. Infinite isn't just a name, it's an adjective. 343i wants to make a never-ending Halo game that evolves over the course of 10 years. Infinite is the last mainline Halo game which makes it more into a platform rather than a sequel.
In a recent interview with Wired, 343i boss Bonnie Ross says that Halo Infinite is "Halo-as-a-service". All Halo games were technically live service games but this time 343i is broken the mold with unprecedented cross-platform play coupled with F2P. There's also a campaign that could easily evolve over time with more content, events, and a lot more. Infinite is set up to become a portal instead of an actual game and Microsoft will have to navigate this potential live service trap very carefully.
343i is prepared to make significant changes over time, which is among the most important things to keep engagement (and monetization) high. In short, 343i will monitor all feedback and make changes where necessary.
"We don't want to lose touch with our players in our community across these long time spans," Joe Staten told Wired.
So what does this mean exactly? Halo Infinite won't just launch and be retired as the team moves on to Halo 7. Instead, the core Halo team will stay on and focus on new content for Halo Infinite. It's a novel approach similar to what Bungie is doing with Destiny right now.