Gamers think Halo Infinite should be delayed to get co-op campaign

Many gamers think Halo Infinite should be delayed so it can launch as a complete package with co-op campaign and forge included.

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Yesterday 343 Industries confirmed Halo Infinite will be missing two big features when it launches in Holiday 2021: Co-operative campaign on both PC and consoles, and Forge, the toolset used to make custom games and maps. These features have been delayed by up to half a year.

343i says it plans to release co-campaign 3 months after launch, and forge is coming six months after launch. That's if everything goes according to plan, and with live games, things usually don't (just ask BioWare with Anthem or Bethesda with Fallout 76). That means Halo Infinite will be the first mainline Halo FPS not to launch with co-op campaign on consoles, and that the game will technically release as an incomplete package.

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Fans aren't too happy. Many Redditors think 343i should just delay the game entirely until it can be released with forge--or at least campaign co-op--in tow. 343i says the technical complexities of both co-op campaign and forge are the reasons for the delay. Joe Staten asserts that Forge is very advanced this time around, and that the campaign's nonlinear choose-your-own-path scope and save points have complicated development.

The general sentiment on Reddit is that 343i should just release F2P multiplayer and hold off on the premium $59.99 version until co-op and other features are ready.

"If you want people to buy your game for campaign only it needs to be worth the 60 dollars. And not just a single player experience and "30 dollars worth" of xp boosters and halo bucks or whatever," says Redditor goomyman.

"Wow run through co-op legendary with my friend every release day. Super disappointed," Redditor itsamirage said.

"Basically they are releasing the game as an early access title, going to be a bumpy ride. Blows my mind they can't get a feature complete launch after SIX YEARS. That is absolutely wild. Leaving out Coop is particularly mind boggling," says Redditor F1 Revolution.

"Co-op is a HUGE deal when playing halo for the first time," Redditor Jabfo43 said.

Comments on other forum sites like ResetERA also express frustration with 343 Industries. In fact, a recent user poll shows that 75% of respondents ( 812 people) play Halo for the campaign.

We've known for a while now that the main reason Halo Infinite exists at all is because of the free-to-play multiplayer. MP is the core bread and butter of the game's ethos--the very reason it exists at all is to make money via digital microtransactions. Infinite will have a dazzling array of microtransactions to purchase when it launches on all platforms.

And to be fair to fans and 343i, the reality is Infinite is just too ambitious of a project. The team simply tried to do too many things at once.

To make Halo Infinite, 343 is:

1. Making a new games engine
2. Developing a game on a new games engine to scale across five Xbox consoles across two gens as well as a multitude of PC configurations
3. Making a network infrastructure that serves a non-paygated free-to-play Halo experience
4. Developing live ops content, complete with battle passes
5. Making tons of cosmetics to fuel mTX
6. Laying out a huge storyline set in a sandbox world with a nonlinear campaign, Far Cry style
7. Adding in features like online co-op, Forge, and even split-screen to PC

Halo Infinite will launch sometime in Holiday 2021 on PC and Xbox consoles, but only with solo campaign and free-to-play multiplayer.