Halo Infinite will be released without a Co-Op campaign or Forge co-op

343 Industries has announced that it will be delaying the co-op campaign and Forge for Halo Infinite until after launch as developers remain focused on the single-player campaign and multiplayer for a release during the upcoming holiday season.

in a Video update On the official Halo YouTube channel, Halo Infinite Chief Creative Officer Joseph Staten confirmed that neither the co-op nor Forge will be in Halo Infinite at launch. 343 confirmed that Halo Infinite is “100 percent committed” to releasing the highly anticipated shooter during this year’s holiday season.

Known in the Halo franchise, Campaign Co-Op lets you play the single-player campaign with a friend. Forge, in turn, is a unique experience where players can create their own game modes via custom maps, rules, and more. Forge is where the most innovative player modes come from, some of which have evolved into the official online Halo modes.

“Unfortunately, we made the difficult decision to postpone Co-op and Forge until after launch,” Staten said in a video update. “We’re doing this so we can focus on a quality experience at launch.”

Staten confirmed that the team has a release schedule with seasons of the co-op and Forge campaign. This is how Halo Infinite appears with its single-player mode and the first season of multiplayer. According to Staten, the campaign will be co-op in Season 2 and Forge in Season 3.

Staten explained that the new season will start every three months, which means the campaign will be a co-op in 2022.

Staten says this decision comes with several developmental challenges, particularly in the collaborative campaign. “In the co-op mode, we will have the opportunity to play the campaign in this beautiful, open-ended and non-linear version of the Halo campaign. It will provide much more flexibility to defeat Banished Rules in all kinds of different ways, and progress in the game in your own way,” Staten said.

“It’s hard at the same time. If you think about conservation systems and all the technologies that drive this somewhat non-linear experiment, and in the collaboration experiment it’s even more difficult.”

Halo Infinite doesn’t have a clear release date yet, but community manager Brian Jarrard says the team is fully prepared for one release. Xbox head Phil Spencer previously confirmed that the studio is ready to release Halo Infinite during the 2021 holiday season.

In the meantime, Halo Infinite will be doing more testing for multiplayer in the lead up to launch.