Halo Infinite‘s multiplayer mode just went live in beta, allowing players to jump into the game ahead of its full December launch. When that comes, everyone can enjoy the Master Chief’s next adventure as a solo experience — at the start, anyway. For the first time in the series’ 20-year history, Halo Infinite will be the first mainline game to launch without a co-op mode. It’s not ready, even after a year-long delay. And according to Halo boss, Joseph Staten, Infinite won’t have campaign co-op until at least May next year. Forge, too, is being pushed.
The original plan for 343 was to have the co-op mode ready by Season 2. With seasons initially scheduled to be three months long, the co-op campaign would be absent in Halo Infinite until at least March. However, 343 decided to extend Season 1 until May 2022. What does this mean for co-op? Well, exactly what you think it means.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Staten confirmed that co-op has been pushed. 343 is committing to what it said, that the co-op campaign of Halo Infinite won’t arrive until Season 2.
“Yes, we are extending Season 1,” he told Eurogamer. “So our goal still remains what I said before, which is to ship campaign co-op with Season 2 and Forge with Season 3. But those remain goals. Those remain targets. And we can’t commit to any hard dates right now, because as we’re seeing with this multiplayer beta, other things might move up in the priority stack for us.”
Forge mode gets the push as well
It’s not the best news for co-op players, but Forge fans won’t fare much better. Since the developer is pushing Season 2 further into 2022, the following season, bringing Forge mode, has been obviously moved as well. Season 3 will bring the map customization tool Forge, and it should follow the end of Season 2’s three-month stay. Staten, however, does hint that plans may change. He tells Eurogamer that “[343] can’t commit to any hard dates right now, because as we’re seeing with this multiplayer beta, other things might move up in the priority stack for us.”
“If it turns out that our progression system just isn’t working the way that we intended, if we need to move some of these bigger rocks sooner, then we as a team will make those decisions and will clearly communicate to our fans why we’re why we’re doing certain things.”
Published: Nov 19, 2021 03:30 pm