Haloween Horrors

Happy Haloween to all you spooky Spartans and Sangheili out there!
What a month it’s been! The next chapter of Halo was revealed to the world, the 2024 Halo World Championship reached its climactic conclusion—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Join us for a round-up of all the latest goings-on in the world of Halo, including news on the upcoming 2024 Winter Update for Halo Infinite.
A NEW DAWN
Those of you who joined us at the 2024 Halo World Championship earlier this month for the climactic Grand Finals received a first look at the future direction of Halo as the franchise and studio turns the page to begin a new chapter.
That chapter began with the announcement that we are now Halo Studios and the “recipe” for how we make Halo games is changing. We have multiple projects in development which are being built in Unreal Engine 5, and we showed a behind the scenes look at Project Foundry—a multi-discipline research project and development process training tool which brought to life some of Halo’s iconic environments, characters, and weapons.
HALO INFINITE
WINTER UPDATE 2024
As we approach the end of the month, we are looking ahead to our upcoming Operations, starting with Operation: Great Journey in November—a celebration of all things Halo 2 as the beloved game hits its twentieth birthday.
This will mark the beginning of what we’re calling Halo Infinite’s Winter Update for 2024, which includes three Operations over the following months.
The Winter Update will bring some really exciting additions to Halo Infinite, which is where players can expect to see notable Forge updates, quality of life improvements, and things like third-person Firefight—a new way to play Halo (which can also be configured for experiences created in Forge). After the three Operations of the Winter Update are complete, what follows in early 2025 will be the “Spring Update,” and so on.
We will have more to share with you about what’s coming in the Winter Update very soon, so stay tuned!
Of course, before we get ahead of ourselves, there’s still time to complete the current Operation active in Halo Infinite right now: Haloween.
The free 20-tier Operation Pass features the Spartanstein* armor set and addition Spartan Points rewards, and you can upgrade to the Premium Pass to obtain the Pestilent Winds armor effect.
(*Spartanstein’s Monster)
Alongside Operation: Haloween, the Survive The Undead playlist launched which was made by the amazing folks known as The Forge Falcons.
We sat down for a chat with EliteFalcon, MaxBloodBath, Prim27, and Outlet to learn all about the work that goes into creating the incredible and unique Forge experiences that The Forge Falcons are known for. Give it a read here!
The fan-favorite Infection mode, Alpha Zombies, has returned!
This mode is all about survival instincts. Featuring simplified loadouts (Spartans with Pistols and Shotguns, Infected with swords, and no weapons on the map), this should feel more reminiscent of legacy Infection experiences. Get the full details in our Alpha Zombies refresh blog.
HALO ESPORTS
HALOWC 2024
Spacestation emerged as the victors of the 2024 Halo World Championship, beating out OpTic Gaming in a thrilling seven-game series. We hope you had a great time watching this epic finale for Year 3 of HCS—whether you joined us at the Seattle Convention Center or tuned into the livestreams from October 4-6.
You can relive the biggest Halo event of the year with some official and community-based photo galleries linked below:
- Official HaloWC 2024 Photo Gallery
- Meg’s HaloWC 2024 Community Album
- Hawkner’s HaloWC 2024 Community Album
- David’s HaloWC 2024 Community Album
Of course, you can also catch the epic highlights from each day as well.
And in case you missed any of the awesome Community Stage panels, be sure to head over to the VODs for each!
Get to know the pros more with the two most recent episodes of UNLOCKED, a series which takes you behind the scenes with the stars of the Halo Championship Series. And, voted by his fellow Halo pro peers, Legend emerged as the MVP of the year!
- UNLOCKED, Episode 6 – MentaL of Shopify Rebellion
- UNLOCKED, Episode 7 – Lucid of OpTic Gaming
- Legend – Your 2024 HCS Season MVP
Thank you for joining us for another pulse-pounding bout of competitive Halo action. We put together a little video to honor your participation. It's your energy, passion, and love for Halo that made this event incredible—whether you were competing, cheering from the stands, or joining us online, none of this would be possible without you!
TEN YEARS OF HCS
November 5 marks the tenth anniversary of the Halo Championship Series, so take a trip down memory lane with us as we celebrate some of the most iconic Halo esports moments from the last decade.
Keep it locked to our HCS 10 Year Anniversary blog for further updates as we update it each week with brand new content.
HCS YEAR 4
As announced at HaloWC 2024, Year 4 of the Halo Championship Series will be kicking off in 2025! Stay tuned for more information and a 2025 roadmap in the new year.
RADAR BLIPS
- COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT – OCTOBER 2024: Check out the latest round-up of community creativity.
- CANON FODDER #158: Dive into our latest announcements from Canon Fodder LIVE, the lore behind janissary super-soldiers, and we recommend some spooky Halo stories for the season.
- VENEZIAN SONATA: September 2559. Captain Veronica Dare is deployed to Venezia on a reconnaissance mission to investigate the emergence of a potential new threat.
THE ARTIST’S CORNER
October's art piece, in celebration of the Haloween festivities, is an illustration by Guy Warley for the 2022 edition of the Halo Encyclopedia.
This depicts the Gravemind, the central intelligence of the Flood, and its foul legions emerging from a structure to spread and grow, sharing its timeless chorus of everlasting victory with all forms of life. Won’t you join their song?
That’s a wrap for October. Thank you again for joining us at the 2024 Halo World Championship, we hope you had a great time with your fireteams of family and friends. Be sure to catch up on all the action if you missed it—it’ll be sure to inspire as you mop up that Operation Pass for Haloween ahead of Halo Infinite’s upcoming Winter Update.
We’ll be back with you very soon with more to share on that. Until then, happy Haloween!