Halo Infinite’s due out later this year, but it won’t be launching with everything you’d want. With 343 Industries working hard to ensure that the game gets out by the end of this year, they’ve decided to prioritize development in certain areas and push back a couple of features that won’t be in the game when it releases.
The news was confirmed by Joseph Staten, head of creative at 343 Industries, who confirmed during the recent Halo Infinite development update that the game won’t have campaign co-op or Forge when it launches later this year.
“Unfortunately, as we focus the team for shutdown, and really focus on a quality experience for launch, we made the really tough decision to delay campaign co-op for launch,” Staten said. “And we also made the tough call to delay shipping Forge past launch as well.”
Staten says 343 Industries made the decision because they don’t want to ship anything until they know it’s at a minimum level of quality, and they do no feel co-op and Forge are at that level just yet.
“Our number one priority is making sure that whatever we ship, whenever we ship it, it meets the right quality bar. Across all platforms – Xbox devices, PC in all its different configurations. ” he said. “And we looked at these two experiences – campaign co-op and Forge – we made the determination they’re just not ready. And as a studio, we don’t want to ship things if they’re not ready.”
That said, given Halo Infinite’s nature as a live service experience, 343 Industries is going to “keep campaign co-op and Forge in the over a little bit longer” and release them following the game’s release as part of its seasonal roadmap. When exactly can we expect that? Staten says the plan right now is to ship campaign co-op in season 2, and Forge in season 3. That means that the goal right now is to release the former three months after the game’s launch, and the latter six months after launch- though of course, Staten points out that nothing is set in stone yet.
As for when Halo Infinite will actually launch, there’s actually still no word on that yet. Microsoft and 343 Industries have said the game’s targeting Holiday 2021 launch, and it seems they still remain committed to that window. Rumours say that could mean mid-November, but we’re still waiting on official word. Microsoft does have an Xbox Gamescom show coming up on August 24, so maybe we’ll get more information then.