Halo Infinite Tech Preview’s Matchmaking Has Limited Time Slots
Halo Infinite devs have just provided further information regarding the game’s second multiplayer technical preview, and it looks like they have decided to severely limit the players’ matchmaking opportunities. Matchmaking will not only be available for just six days across the two weekends that the tech preview will be on, but it will also only be accessible for merely eight hours on those days.
Halo Infinite’s second multiplayer tech preview will be running through September 23 to 26 and September 30 to October 3. According to the announcement posted by 343 Industries on the official Halo blog, the “daily matchmaking windows for both weekends will be 10am-2pm PT and 5pm-9pm PT on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of each flight.” These restrictive Halo Infinite matchmaking time slots amount to only eight hours of matchmaking across the six days of its availability, which computes to a total of only 48 hours.
“To clarify, those windows are the only times PvP matchmaking will be available during these two weekends,” said Halo Community Manager John Junyszek. This means that Australian players will have to access the preview at 3am to 7am Eastern Standard Time. For UK players, on the other hand, the latter slot of 5pm to 9pm PT will be 1am to 5am British Summer Time. These Halo Infinite matchmaking limitations have left a lot of its players dissatisfied, specifically those who are in time zones outside of the US.
“You have got to be joking?” wrote one known Australian Halo streamer on social media. It would seem that the studio has decided not to stress test different regions, and this decision has become frustrating to many Halo Infinite fans.
“Understand folks will be upset as, obviously, people want to play as much as possible,” explained Halo Community Director Brian Jarrard. “But, this is still technical in nature and a preview—not a marketing or pre-order Beta.”