'Halo Infinite' won't have campaign co-op or Forge modes at launch

Halo Infinite is on track to hit Xbox consoles, PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming sometime this holiday season, but some key modes will be missing at the outset. In a development update, 343 Industries said campaign co-op and Forge won't be available at launch, as the studio is focusing on the single-player campaign and multiplayer modes.

"Unfortunately, as we focused the team for shutdown and really focused on a quality experience for launch, we made the really tough decision to delay shipping campaign co-op for launch," Halo Infinite head of creative Joseph Staten said in the video. "We also made the tough call to delay shipping Forge past launch as well."

343 Industries will roll out the modes next year as part of its seasonal roadmap. Right now, the plan is to release campaign co-op in season two (around three months after the game debuts) and Forge in season three (approximately six months after launch). Those plans may change though.

"Our number one priority is making sure that whatever we ship, whenever we ship it, it meets the right quality bar across all platforms," Staten said. "When we looked at these two experiences, campaign co-op and Forge, we made the determination they're just not ready."

Campaign co-op has long been a staple of the Halo series, with up to four people being able to tackle the main campaign together. In Forge, players can create custom game modes with modified maps and unique rules.

The delays will likely come as a disappointment to fans, who've already had to wait longer than expected for the next game in the flagship Xbox franchise. Halo Infinite wasn't ready in time for the Xbox Series X/S launch last November. As such, Microsoft delayed the game until a year after it was initially supposed to arrive.

As for the specific Halo Infinite release date, Staten said 343 Industries plans to announce that soon. Along with the single-player campaign, there's a free-to-play multiplayer mode. You'll just have to remain patient a bit longer if you want to play through the campaign with your buddies.