Halo Infinite Won’t Include Vital Campaign Feature on Launch Day

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries announced today that the upcoming first-person shooter won’t feature a vital feature associated with the game’s campaign when it releases later this year. Notably, that feature happens to be campaign co-op, which allows players to experience the story mode alongside friends. Although this feature is one that will still be arriving further down the road, its lack of inclusion on day one is a major omission.

343’s creative director Joseph Staten confirmed in a new development update today for Halo Infinite that the game would be launching later in 2021 without some features that longtime fans have become familiar with. Campaign co-op happened to be one of those features in question that won’t be arriving at launch, although it’s said to be on track for Season 2. To give you a better idea of what that means, most in-game Seasons for Halo Infinite are planned to last a couple of months. This means that campaign co-op should then arrive at some point in early 2022.

“Unfortunately, as we focused the team for shut down and really focused on a quality experience for launch, we made the really tough decision to delay shipping campaign co-op for launch,” Staten said of the surprising move regarding Halo Infinite. Staten went on to say that the main reason this feature is being cut from Infinite at first is to ensure that when it arrives, it meets a certain level of quality. At this point in time, the team just doesn’t feel like campaign co-op is polished enough to release later this year, which is why it’s being shoved back.

As a whole, this is a move that has already upset many fans on social media that were looking forward to Halo Infinite later this year. Although the campaign will still be playable on day one, for many, Halo has always been an experience that is best served with friends. To not have co-op available at launch could very well prompt many to just wait until a later date to actually play through the campaign.

For now, 343 hasn’t announced any more specific plans for the release of Halo Infinite outside of its Holiday 2021 window. When it does arrive later this year, though, it’ll be coming to Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC.