During the recent Halo Infinite flight test, a number of players noticed bots teabagging players after their death. Many videos pertaining to the matter went viral, but it seems the bots weren’t deliberately taunting players on losing a battle. In a statement issued to Kotaku, 343 Industries reported that this is a glitch in the AI systems.
Once the player is dead, a “pathing hiccup” seems to trigger which causes movements that look strikingly similar to Halo‘s signature taunts. This does happen due to the corpse presenting a navigation challenge, and 343 has no intentions to discourage or taunt players who aren’t doing so good.
“We don’t have explicit programming that tells the bots to teabag or taunt you in any way,” the statement reads. “The bots are meant to be welcoming and fun for players of all skill levels, and a feature designed to taunt a player would oppose that goal. If that happened to be observed shortly after a kill, or near a player’s body, it can definitely feel like an intentional behaviour. In reality, the bot was just struggling to go up the stairs.”
While Halo Infinite‘s flight test seems to have garnered mostly positive reception, it hasn’t been without issues. Many gamers recently got disappointed with the game’s fruit destruction physics, and 343 Industries issued a hilarious statement in response to the uncalled outrage.