Halo Infinite's campaign co-op has been delayed again

343 Industries, the team behind Halo Infinite, has confirmed it needs "more time" to work on Infinite's eagerly-anticipated co-op modes.

While no prior Halo game has ever shipped without the ability to play couch and network co-op, the team decided to delay the release of co-op mission and Forge in Halo Infinite - and it looks as though Halo fans will have to wait a little while longer before they can suit up with Master Chief and their friends.

"[T]he reality is that it’s going to take more time to land a high-quality, full-featured 4-player network co-op experience in the massive, wide-open world of Halo Infinite," the team explained in a lengthy post on Halo Waypoint.

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"We’re also committed to a great 2-player split-screen co-op experience on all Xbox consoles, from the original Xbox One through Xbox Series X - and the non-linear, wide-open sections of the Campaign present some big challenges for split-screen that have taken us more time to solve.

"All this means that we will not be able to ship Campaign network co-op on May 3rd, at the start of Season 2," the post continues. "But we are still aiming to deliver Campaign network co-op later in Season 2, and we will share a release date for that and for split-screen co-op as soon as we can."

"We are also making great progress on Forge. Indeed, we are already flighting Forge to a small group of community creators and working closely with them to ensure that all of you have a terrific experience creating, sharing, browsing, and playing Forge content. In the near term, we will continue to privately flight Forge as we develop it while also planning for public flight(s) later this year. We still have the goal of shipping Forge with Season 3."

If you're thinking that progress on Season 2 and 3 have come at the cost of the development of co-op and Forge, 343i wants to reassure you that that simply isn't the case.

"[T]o be clear, this work has been occurring in parallel to Season 2 work, as has our work on Forge."

There has been better news for Halo fans recently, though. 343 Industries recently confirmed that from Season 2, players will be able to earn Credits as part of its battle pass system. The studio also confirmed that it had been "monitoring the discussions" about the game's shop and microtransactions and had plans to "reduc[e] pricing across the board".

Should play Halo Infinite in 2022? I certainly think so. While it's true I'm missing co-op missions too, in my write up I said that "I've always thought there's something special about Halo's multiplayer".

"Whereas its contemporaries are obsessed with reinvention, endlessly complicating matters with unlockables and perks and competitive advantages that sometimes seem to unfairly penalize those without the luxury of time, Halo has chiefly stuck to its guns: literally.

"It doesn't matter if you've played once, or 101 times. It doesn't really matter what rank you are (well, beyond bragging rights, I guess) – Halo is genuinely a level playing field. At the end of the day, who survives and who dies comes down to you, your tactics, and good old-fashioned luck. There are no game-breaking God rolls to get you out of a sticky situation here – and it's all the better for it."