The features need some more time in the oven
343 Industries put out a new development update on Halo Infinite today, discussing the recent technical preview and the road ahead. In it, the studio confirmed that campaign co-op and Forge won’t make it in time for launch day.
Both are being pushed out past launch for the team to focus on meeting the quality bar across platforms. “As a studio, we don’t want to ship things if they’re not ready,” said 343’s head of creative Joseph Staten.
He goes on to say that the features are “in the oven” for a little while longer, and when they’re ready, they’ll roll out as part of the seasonal roadmap; campaign co-op is targeted for season two, while Halo Infinite‘s Forge is targeting season three. (Halo seasons are three months long, so that’s roughly three and six months out from launch, respectively.)
Staten also confirmed that split-screen multiplayer will be shipping day one for Xbox consoles, though PC won’t be getting it right away. He also said the team is looking at feedback from the technical preview, and though some adjustments won’t be coming at launch, he noted that there are already plans for post-launch support.
“The good news is, we have a year long post-launch content and feature roadmap already worked out, you know, we’re already working on those things now,” said Staten. “So yeah, some things won’t land in a launch time frame, but some things will just roll out over time. That’s part of this Halo Infinite journey that we’re kicking off together with the fans.”
The studio also acknowledged that there’s no public launch date yet. Staten said the team is still “100% committed” to launching this holiday, with both the campaign and the first season of free-to-play multiplayer, but they still have to work through some details. He says they will be talking about the release date soon, though.
It seems like the technical preview for Halo Infinite was somewhat promising, so hopefully some additional time and less pressure from getting every feature in pre-launch should help solidify the base of Infinite.
