Halo Waypoint
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| Halo Waypoint | |
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September 26 2009 (Website) |
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ESRB: Mature (M) for Blood and Gore, Language, Violence |
Halo Waypoint is the official online portal for all Halo-related content. It showcases Halo news, updates, lore, stats, and other related Halo materials.
Overview[edit]
Halo Waypoint provides users with various kinds of Halo information, including information on members of the Halo community, various machinima videos and gameplay strategies and tutorials. It also allows players to access their own gameplay-related data. Most major announcements regarding the Halo series are also posted at Waypoint.
Versions[edit]
- Waypoint is accessible online at halowaypoint.com as the primary Halo website.[1]
- A mobile version of Halo Waypoint was released for the Windows Phone 7 (and later 8), iOS, and Android platforms for free, though it lacked a number of features found on the web and Xbox versions. An additional feature called ATLAS was released in December 2011 which showed detailed diagrams of Halo: Reach multiplayer maps and near real time game player and weapon location stats in Matchmaking and Custom Games. ATLAS was free on the Windows Phone 7 and available for $4.99 on iOS and Android.[2] 343 Industries discontinued support for the Waypoint the original mobile apps on August 1, 2014.[3]
On September 29, 2021, a new version of the app was released on iOS and Android. Less than two years later, the app was discontinued again on June 7, 2023, with 343 Industries citing declining user engagement compared to the website as their reason for moving away from dedicated mobile apps.[4]
Succession & Restoration[edit]
The Halo Channel was a next-generation iteration of the Waypoint concept and is available on the Xbox One and Windows 8.1.[5] The Halo Waypoint website received a visual and organizational overhaul on October 14, 2014 in preparation for the release of the Halo Channel and Halo: The Master Chief Collection.[6]
Following the release of The Master Chief Collection on PC the game's terminals , which previously could only be viewed through the Halo Channel, were incorporated into the game itself. The Halo Channel ceased to be updated, its various other functions were absorbed back into the web and mobile versions of Halo Waypoint, and as such, Halo Channel was rendered obsolete.
History[edit]
On July 23, 2009 Halo Waypoint was announced as an Xbox 360 application that would feature several Halo Legends videos.[7]
The Halo Waypoint website launched September 2009. The site provided basic information on the Halo franchise detailing the games, and also supplied weekly updates involving the Halo Community, but it lacked the stat tracking and achievement records the subsequently released console app featured.[8] Following this, many marketing sites for Halo, including the Halo Wars Launch Site.
On October 19, 2009 the Xbox 360 Halo Waypoint was first shown in a preview video, and on October 30 it was available to Xbox Preview members.[9]
On November 5, 2009 the Halo Waypoint app on Xbox 360 was publicly released.
On August 4, 2010 a Beta forum was added to the website which allowed communication between Halo fans on the site. That same day, many marketing sites for previously released Halo media, such as the Halo Wars Launch Site, were removed and redirected to the Halo Waypoint site instead. On December 15, 2010, the Halowars.com forums went offline and were subsequently merged with the Halo Waypoint forums.[10]
On September 14, 2010 the website was redesigned. This redesign removed the timeline feature and previously found on the site, and a footer at the bottom of the page that changed every time the page refreshed.
On February 26, 2011 a Beta stat tracker was added for Halo: Reach on the forums.
On September 8, 2011 a Gamma forum was created for the testing features that was going to be used in the final build of the forums. This subsequently lead to the Beta forum ending and leading to the final build of the forum to be completed.
On March 31, 2012 Halo Waypoint officially took over all record-keeping responsibilities from Bungie.net.
On October 13, 2014, the web version of Waypoint received a massive overhaul, which included the removal of some of the elements found on the site since its launch. The Xbox 360 version did not receive such an update, and as such these features could still be found there.
In 2021, in preparation of the launch of Halo Infinite, Waypoint once again received a visual and technical overhaul. Waypoint received support for Halo Infinite, including new ways to engage with the game's system from the Waypoint website and the mobile app.[11]
On January 13, 2022, all Xbox 360 Halo online services were shut down, and with them the Xbox 360 version of Halo Waypoint.[12][13]
Website Content[edit]
Content on Halo Waypoint is divided into seven main categories: Games, News, Esports, Community (including Insider program and Forums), Support, and Gear (formerly Shop/Store). There is also a profile section for the user to explore their own game progress, stats, customization, and Waypoint activity.
Games[edit]
- Main article: Archive:Halo Waypoint/2009 to 2014/Games
Players can find information for each and every Halo game, organized by title. The web version displays only limited galleries as well as links to service records and related forums.
The Xbox 360 version featured extensive galleries, as well as access to trailers and videos.