Numbers first: two fewer features at launch, one release window kept. In the August development update, published on August 20, 2021 on the official Halo channel, 343 Industries confirmed that Halo Infinite would arrive without campaign co-op and without Forge, the map and game mode editor. Both features would come later, in updates.
In practice, this meant playing the campaign solo at first, something rare for a series where co-op is a tradition. Joseph Staten, the project’s creative head, explained that the decision was meant to focus the team on delivering the game on time. The plan presented was to launch co-op with the second season, about three months after release, and Forge in the third, about six months later. Staten said the studio was “100 percent committed” to the late 2021 launch, although the exact date had not yet been revealed.
The context helps explain the caution. Halo Infinite was supposed to come out alongside the Xbox Series X|S, in November 2020, but the gameplay presentation in July of that year was poorly received, and the game was delayed in August 2020. Since then, the studio had been trying to win back fans’ trust. The good reception of the multiplayer tests, which would be free to play, helped.
What came next
The date came a few days later, on August 25, 2021: December 8, 2021. The free multiplayer debuted earlier, in an open beta on November 15, on the 20th anniversary of the series and of Xbox. The campaign came out on December 8 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and the game reached 20 million players by January 2022. The promised schedule, however, was not met: the campaign’s online co-op only arrived in the November 2022 winter update, and the split-screen mode, which was also planned, was cancelled in September 2022. In other words, the delay was much longer than the three months announced.
Source: 343 Industries.
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