14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at 343 Industries and publisher Microsoft have kept quiet about their plans for Halo 5: Guardians in 2016, but now the two companies are ready to reveal that the first update of the year is called Infinity Armory and is supposed to arrive before the end of January.
The official site explains that gamers will get access, as usual, to a new range of maps as well as extra weapons and armors for their characters, with those interested also able to pick up skins and more.
More details about Infinity Armory for Halo 5: Guardians will be offered in the coming two weeks, with a livestream planned to show it all in action.
343 Industries adds, "The Multiplayer Team is continuing to review data and behavior around these playlists as we think about future iterations of playlists such as Social and Doubles, as well as brand new stuff. What types of new and classic modes can we bring to a new social playlist? What types of brand new experiences can we bring to Team Doubles to increase its popularity?"
Gamers are invited to offer their feedback on the current playlists so that the developers can learn which are the most interesting and how they can be improved in the coming months.
The featured playlist for the weekend is Team Arena, with double experience offered and more REQ points also on the table for those players taking part.
A special playlist for Halo 5: Guardians is also planned to arrive in the coming weeks, offering access to the best maps that the community has been producing since the Forge editor was introduced in the middle of December.
New modes are also in development at 343 Industries, with the team mentioning new competitive options, Fiesta, and Griffball as possibilities for the coming months.
At the moment, Infinity Armory does not have an official launch date, and it's unclear whether a big mechanics-focused update will accompany it.
Halo 5: Guardians is also improving matchmaking and the Forge
343 Industries says that it wants to make it easier for gamers to find a suitable game, which means that the entire system will be improved in the coming months, with a small update already live to increase the limit for map and game variants that can be saved to 100 from 40.
The studio is also saying that it is continuing to work on improvements to Halo: The Master Chief Collection, tweaking playlists and allowing everyone to be paired up with gamers within 14 levels of their own rank to make it faster to get into battle.
343 Industries has made it clear that it does not have plans to deliver single-player focused downloadable content for Halo 5: Guardians and that all the new maps coming in 2016 will be free for the entire community.
The World Championship finals linked to the shooter, which will use the Arena mode and have a prize pool funded in part by the community through the REQ system, are set to take place in March.