Halo Infinite Will Not Include Co-Op, Forge at Launch

Despite being delayed for an entire year, Halo Infinite will be missing key functionality when it launches in the fourth quarter of 2021.

“Unfortunately, as we focused the team for shutdown and really focused on a quality experience for launch, we made a really tough decision to delay shipping campaign co-op for launch,” Microsoft’s Joseph Staten explained during a video-based progress report. “And we also made the tough call to delay shipping Forge past launch, as well.”

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The campaign co-op (cooperative) feature will let two or more gamers experience Halo Infinite’s single-player campaign together. Forge, meanwhile, debuted in Halo 3, and it lets gamers edit existing multiplayer maps and create entirely new maps. The version coming in Halo Infinite will include new functionality that wasn’t present in previous Halo titles.

According to Microsoft’s 343 Industries, the developers behind Halo Infinite, campaign co-op and Forge will appear later in 2022 as part of the new game’s ongoing seasonal DLC (downloadable content) updates.

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Conversation 11 comments

  • simont

    Premium Member
    22 August, 2021 - 12:14 pm

    <p>Halo as a service? We will just add features over the next few years</p>

  • ray2048

    22 August, 2021 - 1:28 pm

    <p>As a fan of this franchise, it would have been better if Microsoft would have pushed the release date back again to include those in the game. Many of my friends have said they will wait until co-op is available.</p>

  • eric_rasmussen

    Premium Member
    22 August, 2021 - 2:02 pm

    <p>Anyone who was looking forward to playing the campaign with a friend will have to wait. Building co-op experiences is way more difficult than most developers realize, which often leads them to make terrible estimates when scheduling work. Making sure co-op is seamless often takes just as long as building the entire base game took.</p>

    • will

      Premium Member
      22 August, 2021 - 2:57 pm

      <p>Yes, but this is Halo and Microsoft, they know co-op. </p><p><br></p><p>I agree with the above statement Microsoft should have delayed the launch until next spring if needed to get co-op done. While I am sure the story and game will be good, there is something about playing the game with a friend and experiencing it for the first time together…not just as another play through.</p>

      • darkgrayknight

        Premium Member
        23 August, 2021 - 11:59 am

        <p>Yeah, I remember playing through Halo 3 with my brother and friends all night after picking up the game at midnight. It was great doing the first play through in co-op.</p>

  • ringofvoid

    22 August, 2021 - 7:30 pm

    <p>This is painful. Xbox really needs a breakthrough moment to gain ground vs PlayStation and having their flagship franchise falter like this doesn’t help</p>

  • t182

    22 August, 2021 - 11:20 pm

    <p>I really haven’t been a fan of what MS has done with Halo. I feel like they are trying to make it too much like other games… to the point where it feels a lot less like Halo. Or it could be me becoming a grumpy old man. </p>

    • mefree

      23 August, 2021 - 11:54 am

      <p>They ruined Windows Phone in the same manner. They removed everything that made it great and started trying to copy android and ios.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      24 August, 2021 - 9:06 am

      <p>So I just had this conversation about a TV show with my wife and I think it applies to Halo (or COD, or whatever). When you have a successful series (TV shows or games, or whatever) you have a dilemma: Do you just keep regurgitating the same stuff over and over again, or do you evolve/change things to keep it fresh? Either approach will bring criticism: Always doing the same thing feels cheap and uninventive, yet fans like the familiarity. And evolving things, while hard and inventive, often alienates fans who will now complain that the new show season/game isn’t what they know and love. There’s no right answer, to put it simply.</p>

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    23 August, 2021 - 5:17 am

    <p>Shipping games are g=hard, doing so working remotely even more so. This is bad news, but narrowing the scope and polishing what is going out is the correct choice. </p>

  • Daishi

    Premium Member
    23 August, 2021 - 5:39 am

    <p>It really makes you wonder what they thought they were going to release a year ago. If with an extra year’s worth of development time they’re still not delivering entire game modes at launch this game must have been a total dumpster fire as originally planned.</p>

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