Halo Infinite Fans Just Got Bad News About These Popular Modes
Fans of "Halo Infinite" are dealing with a bit of whiplash. While fans were happy when the "Halo Infinite" multiplayer beta release caught everyone by surprise, that announcement came with some bad news, even if it wasn't super obvious at first. Back in August, it was announced that "Halo Infinite" would launch without campaign co-op and the popular Forge mode — despite a year-long delay. At the time, 343 Industries said the modes would be added in future multiplayer seasons. Now that fans know the length of the first season, it has become clear that "Halo Infinite" will be lacking campaign co-op and Forge for quite a while.
The "Halo Infinite" multiplayer beta launched with the Season 1 battle pass and it is slated to last until May 2022, making it roughly six months until Season 2 of "Halo Infinite" launches. Speaking to Eurogamer, Head Creative at 343 Industries Joseph Staten confirmed that the extension of Season 1 until May also means that campaign co-op won't be released until May at the earliest, with Forge coming sometime even further after that.
"Yes, we are extending Season 1. So our goal still remains what I said before, which is to ship campaign co-op with Season 2 and Forge with Season 3," said Staten. He added, "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," Staten said. In other words, players could end up seeing these modes arrive even later than May — and the response from "Halo" fans has been mixed.
Halo fans react to further delays
As Staten explained on Halo Waypoint, the extension of Season 1 is meant to give 343 Industries the necessary amount of time to deliver a quality Season 2. This will allow the team to implement fan feedback without crunching over the holidays in December.
"Halo Infinite" fans certainly aren't happy that the campaign co-op is coming even later, meany of them seem to be okay with it if 343 Industries can still keep the multiplayer fresh in the meantime. "IMO this makes it even more important that they introduce more game modes and dedicated playlists soon," ToGetFit on Reddit wrote.
Other fans are concerned about Forge mode not coming until late 2022, since that means 343 Industries will have to personally design every new multiplayer map until Forge releases. In past "Halo" games, fan-made Forge maps would regularly get added to matchmaking in order to keep the map pool fresh, which is now something that 343 Industries won't be able to rely on for quite a while.
Despite these setbacks, the hype for "Halo Infinite" is real, and fans are eagerly awaiting its Dec. 8 launch.