Earlier this year, 343 Industries announced it would be switching from its previous plan to release new content for Halo: Infinite in long "Seasons" to shorter "Operations". However, next week it will release a major new update outside of its "Operations" releases that promises to make some big changes to the sci-fi shooter.
In a blog post, 343 Industries stated the update will roll out on March 19. Perhaps the biggest new feature is a revamp of the game"s networking model. 343 Industries made some changes to the model in December for the Firefight: King of the Hill mode, and since then they have made more improvements. The developer stated these changes "will result in a better and more consistent multiplayer experience."
Another change with this update is a new anti-cheat tool. 343 Industries says:
Easy Anti-Cheat is a tool that monitors players’ game files while they’re playing Halo Infinite to ensure the integrity of each match and combat cheating. With the March Update, our detection and enforcement capabilities will be enhanced, greatly improving the game’s overall security and our ability to respond to cheaters.
The update will include a new Squad Battle playlist with seven maps made by Halo: Infinite community Forge creators. There"s also a new way to make changes to the Firefight: King of the Hill mode with Firefight Custom. The blog post describes this variant:
This is a "blank" Firefight mode that keeps the high-level structure of Firefight: King of the Hill intact (Sets, lives, skulls, scoring, Custom Game options), but removes all the logic related to hills. In other words, this is Firefight: King of the Hill without the King of the Hill.
Finally, the big update will include a number of adjustments for some of the game"s weapons, some Forge map editor fixes, and general quality-of-life improvements for the game.