Halo Infinite co-op beta testing begins July 11 on Xbox and PC

Halo Infinite's long-awaited co-op will finally start beta testing in July, developer 343 Industries today announced.

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At long last, Halo Infinite is finally getting co-op. The game was the first major Halo mainline title to release without co-operative play (neither local or online-based co-op were available) and it's taken over 7 months before 343i was ready to start testing it. That wait will soon be over: Halo Infinite's co-op and mission replay will enter flighting (what 343i calls beta testing) on July 11 across PC and Xbox consoles.

The devs revealed a few details on what's to come. First, existing campaign progress won't be available in the beta test. Second, we're getting a kind of new game+ feature with mission replay where all existing upgrades and unlockables will carry over when you replay a mission (which is to be expected). This includes skulls that you or your teammates have unlocked. Third, 343i is adding new achievements specifically for co-op play. And last but not least, four players will be able to enjoy campaign co-op with full cross-play across Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

"Any combination of PCs and Xboxes up to 4 players are supported, as is playing over Xbox Cloud Gaming. All Co-Op games are hosted on dedicated servers," Halo Infinite principal software engineering lead Isaac Bender said.

"You can think of this system as creating a version of the world that's like the "lowest common denominator" (or "intersection," if you're into set theory) of everyone's Campaign progress. This way, no matter what you do, no one is completing missions out of order.

"What this means is that any unlocks you find in Co-Op are retained in single-player. So, if you're having a really hard time collecting a Skull, you can get in a game with a friend, and if they collect it while you're in that session, you'll get it too!"

Be sure to sign up to the Halo Insider program for a chance to try out the beta.