Halo Infinite is undoubtedly one among the most important – if not the most important – Xbox games of the year, but so far, it’s had a reasonably troubled development. Originally slated to be a launch title for the Xbox Series X last year, Microsoft and 343 Industries ultimately delayed the sport into 2021, and now Halo Infinite is predicted out during the vacation season. Now, 343 Industries has confirmed that Halo Infinite will be launching without two significant features essential parts of the franchise for years.
In a lengthy developer update published today, 343’s Joseph Staten revealed that neither campaign co-op nor Forge mode would be available in Halo Infinite on day one. “Unfortunately, as we focused the team for shutdown and focused on a top-quality experience for launch, we made the callous decision to delay shipping campaign co-op for launch, and that we also made the tough call to delay shipping Forge past launch also,” Staten said (jump to around 17:05 within the video embedded below for the announcement of those delays).
Instead of launching with the sport, Staten says that 343 targets a season 2 launch for campaign co-op, while Forge is predicted to launch in season 3. Staten also clarified that seasons should last around three months, suggesting that campaign co-op should arrive around three months after launch, and Forge should be available six months after launch.
These are some pretty significant losses for Halo Infinite. However, campaign co-op has been core to the Halo experience since the very first Halo game. At the same time, Forge may be a multiplayer map editor that first launched in Halo 3 and has proven to be very fashionable in its title.
While this isn’t great news, there was a bright side to today’s announcement, as Staten said 343 remains “100% committed” to meeting Halo Infinite‘s holiday 2021 launch window. Additionally, he says that it shouldn’t be an excessive amount of long before a particular release date is nailed down, so hopefully, we’ll finally have a release date soon. Finally, we’ll allow you to know when 343 and Microsoft announce the discharge date for Halo Infinite, so stay tuned for more.
