One of the best things about the Halo franchise is its dedication to couch and online co-op play, but for Halo Infinite, three months after launch the feature is still MIA.
Previously, we had heard that would be remedied with the launch of Season 2 on May 3, but developer 343 Industries has confessed that's no longer the plan.
According to the developer, it's because of the “big challenges” involved in ensuring Halo Infinite’s more non-linear and open campaign mode works on everything from the top-of-the-range Xbox Series X to the last-gen Xbox One, both online and split-screen play.
“The reality is that it’s going to take more time to land a high-quality, full-featured 4-player network co-op experience in the massive, wide-open world of Halo Infinite,” wrote Joseph Staten, Halo Infinite’s Head of Creative in the March 2022 update.
“All this means that we will not be able to ship Campaign network co-op on May 3rd, at the start of Season 2,” he continued. “But we are still aiming to deliver Campaign network co-op later in Season 2, and we will share a release date for that and for split-screen co-op as soon as we can.”
Assuming no more slips, that shouldn’t delay things by too much. Each season is expected to be about three months in length (Season 1 aside, which will be six months old when Season 2 rolls around), so we should still be looking at co-op play before Season 3 begins in the summer.
Speaking of Season 3, that’s when we’re still expecting Forge mode. “We are already flighting Forge to a small group of community creators and working closely with them to ensure that all of you have a terrific experience creating, sharing, browsing, and playing Forge content,” Staten continued. “In the near term, we will continue to privately flight Forge as we develop it while also planning for public flight(s) later this year.”
Notably, both Forge and campaign co-op come under the two main priorities: “addressing critical issues” and shipping Season 2 which, Staten announced, has the intriguing theme of “lone wolves."
“Lone Wolf Spartans are hunters. Trackers. They’re resourceful improvisers, operating deep in enemy territory without resupply or support. They’re fierce, rugged, and prefer to work alone—but they’re still loyal to the Spartan pack.” This is what two of them look like:
We’ll hear more next month, apparently, when “our marketing and promotional campaign kicks into high gear.”
But if you’re worried this has been blocking co-op, don’t be: “to be clear, this work has been occurring in parallel to Season 2 work, as has our work on Forge,” Staten added.
