The Halo subreddit got so toxic that mods have closed it for the weekend

Everyone can take some time off to think about what they’ve done.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

In case you’re not up to date, there’s a lot of back-and-forth over the contents and quality of theHalo Infinitemultiplayer beta. Indeed, the free-to-play beta has sparked such controversy that the moderators of the Halo subreddit have closed the entire forum for the weekend because people just cannot behave themselves.

“Some users on the sub have even been responsible for doxxing and death threats,” said the moderators in a statement madelast night.“We’re temporarily putting the sub on lockdown so people can hopefully settle down a bit and we can hit the reset button before launch. At the end of the day this is a video game and this level of vitriol is unwarranted.”

The moderators of the Halo subreddit say they’ll reopen the forum on Monday. They’re very clear that they don’t want to silence criticism or support of Halo Infinite, only that the tone of discussion had gotten too hostile: “If you see people breaking our rules, don’t make things worse by breaking the rules yourself.”

It’s a spiral I’ve seen before in communities, where controversial topics turn moderation into an untenable thing for volunteer-driven communities.

The subreddit has been incredibly toxic this week, especially in the wake of a reveal that there arehidden game modes when players go offline.Insults were flying pretty freely, and every second or third post was about one of a handful of specific gripes.

It’s the culmination of weeks of community turmoil around design decisions and implementation in Halo Infinite.

First was the Battle Pass, which appears quite small and took too long to complete. (Our Nat Clayton:Sorry, Halo Infinite, but your battle pass sucks.) That gotsome designer attention, though. Since then it’s been all about unlockables, microtransactions, andgame modes,focusing on players' inability to pick any mode they like rather than be forced into what the developers have made available that week.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Halo Infinite’s single player component will release on December 8th.

Halo Infinite crossplay:how it worksHalo Infinite tips:how not to suckHalo Infinite ranks:ranking system explained

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he’s not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

Welcome to shooter bizarro world: First Fortnite goes FPS, now Halo Infinite’s adding a third person mode

‘Y’all killed it’: Survive the Undead, a community-made PvE zombie mode, is bringing players back to Halo Infinite

Death of the Reprobate’s creator drew inspiration from the timeless art of Hieronymous Bosch, Bruegel, and the poop joke