Halo 4 launch is hampered by server problems

CONSOLE GAME Halo 4 was released for the Xbox 360 yesterday but some players were affected by server problems.

The game launched at midnight, but during the day the Halo Waypoint Twitter account confirmed that some users were experiencing problems.

We are aware of the servers issues & currently investigating. We will keep you updated. Thanks for your patience.

— Halo Waypoint (@HaloWaypoint) November 6, 2012

Gamers had their multiplayer experiences affected in a variety of ways. Their ranks might have dropped between games, their custom loadouts might have been lost, and their armour unlocks impacted.

A blog post detailed the problems, explaining that they were "server side", and users were told to keep trying. "Once you are able to connect to the server again, you will need to recreate your custom loadouts but your armor and SR should return to their normal state. We apologize for the inconvenience, and many thanks for your continued patience," said a message.

This was followed by another saying that the problems were being looked into, and another, posted five hours later, saying that they had been fixed.

We played Halo 4 last night and it was fine. Not all users were affected, but for those that were the experience must have been frustrating.

According to the blog post the problems were probably down to load, suggesting that the launch of Halo 4 was a victim of its own success.

"As you can imagine, there are a tremendous number of new players connecting to Halo 4 right now," the blog said. "We're aware that some users are experiencing occasional issues connecting to the Halo 4 services, and we are currently narrowing down possible solutions." µ