PC gamers still using an older video card may find themselves unable to play 343 Industries’ Halo Infinite following the latest patch for the popular shooter, which raises the game’s minimum technical requirements and shuts out some video cards. The latest entry in the long-running Halo franchise saw a major new content update earlier this month with the launch of Halo Infinite’s Season 3: Echoes Within.
Released in late 2021 following an infamously troubled development process, 343 Industries’ Halo Infinite was met with a mixed reception from gamers. While many players praised 343’s success at adapting Halo’s traditionally more linear gameplay to an open-world format, some long-time fans of the franchise were let down by the game’s free-to-play multiplayer mode. Despite complaints about the free-to-play format and the recent removal of some fan-favorite Halo Infinite maps and gameplay modes in Season 3, the game’s multiplayer mode has still managed to find a dedicated fanbase.
A new story from the website Dark Side of Gaming reveals that the latest patch for Halo Infinite is preventing some PC gamers from being able to play the game because of a change to the game’s minimum hardware requirements. Following the release of the patch, gamers who have a video card with less than 4GB of VRAM are no longer able to launch Halo Infinite even if the game previously ran on their machine. The changes to the game’s hardware requirements come on the heels of some major changes to the Battle Pass and in-game shop for Halo Infinite as part of Season 3: Echoes Within.
The most recent hardware requirements listed on the Halo Waypoint website, which were last updated on March 9, confirm the change to the game’s minimum PC requirements. While many video cards released in the last several years feature far more than the 4GB of VRAM now required to play Halo Infinite, for gamers still using legacy hardware who find themselves locked out of the game, this news will likely come as a disappointment. Some PC players looking to explore the multitude of creative maps designed using Halo Infinite’s powerful Forge map editor may now have to decide between upgrading their video card or making the move to an Xbox Series console.
While most PC gamers have grown accustomed to not always being able to max out the graphics in the latest games as a result of owning older hardware, being locked out of a game that they’ve already been playing makes for a whole different level of frustration. Unfortunately for gamers who find themselves on the wrong side of Halo Infinite’s newly-raised minimum requirements, the only option at this point may be to upgrade if they want to keep playing the game.
Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Sources: DSOG (via Halo Waypoint)