As Halo Infinite gets ready for launch in December, the fans of the series have an opportunity to jump into the action this and next weekend for the technical previews.
The first weekend will test the 4v4 arena during the designated matchmaking times, however you’ll be able to play weapon drills and training modes as soon as you download the game. The schedule will apply strictly to matchmaking, which is the purpose of the test.
The next weekend gets even more exciting where 4v4 arena is back and 12v12 Big Team Battle is added to the test.
How to join Halo Infinite technical preview and when does the matchmaking start?
In order to participate this weekend, you have to be a member of Halo Insider, which is free to sign up to, however you’d have to have been a member since September 13th in order to participate in this week’s technical preview. You might be late for this weekend’s technical preview beta, but you can still (probably) join in next weekend.
Although not explicitly confirmed, in a blog post by Halo Waypoint, it was implied that the next week’s technical preview will be open to everyone.
If you’ve not already, you can sign up for the Halo Insider program and (hopefully) join the technical preview next week.
The schedule times are somewhat awkward if you’re not in the United States, as the times are centered around Pacific Time, making second part of the technical preview really late at night/early morning for most Europeans.
For the UK, this week’s Halo Infinite technical preview schedule runs well into the morning on the next day:
- Friday 24th Sep 6pm to 10pm, and Saturday 25th Sep 1am to 5am
- Saturday 25th Sep 6pm to 10pm, and Sunday 26th Sep 1am to 5am
- Sunday 26th Sep 6pm to 10pm, and Monday 27th Sep 1am to 5am
Although the times look choppy (and they are), each session is eight hours long with two hours server unavailability in between, or 4-hour matchmaking slots. This is a perfect time if you’re in the US, as the technical preview runs over the whole day, however if you’re in the UK, you start in early evening and the preview runs until dawn the next day. Not exactly ideal.
The rationale for this, as given by the devs, is that they’d like to test the servers and the matchmaking by having as many people play at the same time as possible. Ultimately, this makes sense for the test, so we suspect that many die-hard fans will stay up through the night and join the multiplayer.
The Halo community manager explained the reasons behind the 4 hour matchmaking slots, as opposed to open testing times:
"Our primary goal for these two tech previews will be to test our online services at a larger scale than ever before. To achieve this goal, all Halo Insiders with eligible accounts as of September 13 will be invited to participate.
