Ever since the originalHalo: Combat Evolvedlaunched in 2001, a key feature of the franchise has been its support of campaign co-op. Every main seriesHalogame since the original has supported co-op, with the exception of the recently releasedHalo Infinite. While the original plan was to launchHalo Infinitewith both online and split-screen co-op, 343 Industries announced that the feature would instead be delayed to the start of Season 2 in May 2022. Now it’s been confirmed thatHalo Infiniteco-op has been delayed yet again.
343 Industries has announced thatHalo Infinitecampaign co-opwill not be available with Season 2 when it launches on May 3. However, the plan is still for co-op to be introduced at some point during the season.Halo Infinitecampaign co-op will support 4-players online and 2-players in split-screen whenever it does become available, and it seems that is part of the reason why 343 has had to push it back.
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According to 343, it’s been challenging to incorporate co-op intoHalo Infinite’s open world. TheHalo Infiniteopen worldhas created unique challenges with both online and split-screen, as has the need to verify that it works on everything from the original Xbox One console to the much more powerful Xbox Series X.
While some may argue that it could be best for 343 to give up on the split-screenHalo Infiniteco-op, it would likely cause an uproar in the community. As some may recall,Halo 5: Guardiansdidn’t have split-screen co-op, a first for the main seriesHalogames, and that caused quite the controversy back in the day. In response to the backlash, it was promised that the follow-up toHalo 5would support split-screen, and so 343 is pretty much locked intomaking split-screen work inHalo Infinite.
Perhaps abandoning the older hardware would make things easier, but that’s also not on the table. WhileHalo Infiniteis a live-service gameand will likely be the onlyHalogame for years to come, it may make sense at some point for 343 to make a newHalofor the Xbox Series X hardware from the ground-up that can better take advantage of the new console’s horsepower to deliver features that are trickier to implement on Xbox One.
It will be interesting to see how wellHalo Infiniteco-op works whenever it’s added to the game, and if it will truly be implemented before Season 2 is over. In the meantime, fans also have theHalo InfiniteForge modeto look forward to, which is expected to arrive at some point in Season 3.
Halo Infiniteis out now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
