When the first season of Halo Infinite was extended to May, I wondered what that meant for Campaign Co-Op and Forge. Today, we learn that means delays for both modes. In a chat with Eurogamer, 343’s Joseph Staten confirmed both modes are being delayed from their initial target windows.
“At the time that we talked about campaign co-op and Forge I said our goal is to ship campaign co-op in Season 2 and our goal is to ship Forge with Season 3,” Staten said.
“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. But those remain goals. Those remain targets. 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.”
343 Industries was originally targeting three-month seasons but decided to extend the first season until May 2022. Assuming the team gets back to a three-month schedule, we won’t see Campaign Co-Op until May 2022 at the earliest. And Forge until around August.
Both of these delays hurt. Campaign Co-Op and Forge are staples of the Halo franchise. I do hope Forge, in particular, is worth the wait. So much of what makes Halo, Halo is the crazy stuff the Forge/Custom game communities come up with.
Campaign Co-Op and Forge aren’t the only Halo mainstays missing. When Halo Infinite’s multiplayer went live Monday, it came without many of the playlists Halo fans love. No SWAT. No Snipers. No dedicated Slayer playlist.
While some of these missing features are headscratchers, the good news is that Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is fantastic. It’s a return to form for the franchise and hits right as two of its main competitors (Call of Duty and Battlefield) have disappointing launches.
We should get more concrete details on when exactly Campaign Co-Op and Forge are hitting in January.
“In January, after all of you have had a chance to play Halo Infinite’s expansive and adventure-filled campaign starting December 8th, and all of us on the Halo Infinite team have had an opportunity to recharge our energy shields over the holidays, we will have more details to share about the Season 1 event calendar as well as our Season 2, campaign co-op, and Forge release plans,” Staten wrote in a recent blog post.