One of the most important things to consider when playing an online multiplayer game is latency. This is especially true when you fight against other players online in a fast-paced first-person shooter like Halo Infinite. Developer 343 Industries understands this, so the company is making local region matchmaking available in the newly released Winter Update.
Local Region Matchmaking is a new feature in Halo Infinite that allows you to choose a match exclusively hosted within your region. This translates to improved latency because your connection doesn’t have to travel too far to reach the game servers. 343 Industries has data centers for Halo Infinite in Asia, Australia, Brazil, Europe, and North America.
Now, there are some key things to keep in mind. While your ping may improve when you set the matchmaking setting to search only for matches in your region, this may increase the time it takes for you to actually find a match to your liking.
Furthermore, local region matchmaking might reduce the fairness of matches that you get, meaning it’s possible that you’ll end up fighting players with a better skill level than yours.
How does this feature work in Fireteams? Well, the matchmaking option set by the Fireteam leader is the one that the entire party will use. So, if they had not set it to “local,” then you might experience latency issues, especially if you’re in a different region.
To mitigate potential ping issues for players in the Fireteam located in different parts of the globe, the game will pick a single region that strikes the perfect balance for everyone. For example, if two people are in Europe and the other two are from Australia, the matchmaking system may set the region to Asia to get the best possible experience.
Quitter Penalties
To ensure that multiplayer matches are fair for everyone, 343 Industries have made some changes to Ranked matches, specifically penalizing those who quit early.
Those who will quit a match before it concludes will receive a flag. Although nothing happens when the offending player only gets one, subsequent flags in a short time will result in a ban.
Take note that only the first person to quit the match gets a flag. Network disconnects also count as quitting. The company had to make this tough decision because bad actors might circumvent the system by deliberately disconnecting their internet connection.
So, what do you think of the local region matchmaking in Halo Infinite?
