Halo Infinite’s fourth season is still a month away, but 343 Industries has finally started to drip-feed players news about what to expect from the upcoming content drop. That started today with the confirmation that a much-beloved game type is finally coming to Infinite.
In a discussion on season four hosted earlier today in the official Halo Discord server, the team revealed that Infection is coming to Halo Infinite with the release of season four on June 20. It will mark 19 months since Halo Infinite’s original launch date, the longest a Halo game has gone without Infection since the original community-made mode was officially adopted in Halo 3.
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Players were already theorizing that Infection would be coming soon following the events that transpired in season three’s multiplayer narrative. In the story, which continues to follow the Lone Wolves duo introduced in season two, players aided Hieu Dinh in infiltrating an old ONI facility located beneath the multiplayer training academy. There, the Banished AI Iratus—an antagonist also introduced in season two—is revealed to be capable of “possessing” a dormant suit of Spartan armor.
The theories that this would represent the new style for Infection in Infinite have been proven right by this announcement. In the key art released as part of today’s reveal, the holographic display over the Alpha Infected’s armor is clearly still fashioned after the iconography of Iratus. Season four’s story will most likely follow the Academy’s Spartans, as well as the Lone Wolves, working together to try and stop this new corrupting AI threat.
Infection’s notable absence from Infinite has been a point of contention within the community. As many reactions to the announcement on Reddit suggest, its inclusion now is too little too late for many. With how integral Infection has become over the past decade to Halo’s custom game scene, Halo Infinite’s party modes suffered without its presence. Forge creators still found workarounds to bring classic party games such as Duck Hunt to Infinite using other game modes, but the process was far less streamlined without the convenience of Infection.
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A successful launch alongside other notable additions such as Career Rank with season four can still land 343 Industries a lot of public favor. But for now, the community’s excitement around Infection’s return is dampened by the amount of time it took to get here. How heavily Infection itself will tie into the story going forward also remains to be seen, with previous game type additions such as Last Spartan Standing having direct ties to the current narrative arc.
Season four of Halo Infinite, as well as Infection, will release across all available platforms on June 20.
