Update: Halo Infinite's co-op mode has experienced another delay

Game developer 343 Industries recently announced that Halo Infinite, due out this fall, will not feature a co-op campaign at launch, nor will it feature Forge mode And with regard to the former, we were unsurprisingly disappointed

"Unfortunately, after focusing our team on the shutdown and really focusing on delivering a quality experience for launch, we made the really tough decision to delay shipping the campaign co-op for launch We also made the tough decision to delay shipping Forge after launch," said Joseph Staten, 343i Head of Creative for Halo Infinite

While we are not concerned about the delay of Forge mode, which allows players to create their own multiplayer game modes and custom maps, we are concerned about the lack of co-op at launch "Halo Infinite" is a very interesting entry in the "Halo" series and will be released on Xbox This may seem like a minor complaint, as it has the potential to be a major exclusive for the Series X

Just this weekend, I finally finished playing all six main "Halo" games and the expansion "Halo 3:ODST" in co-op with my friend and fellow tech journalist Nathan Spendelow Although we finished our adventure with "Halo 5: Guardians," it lacked the charm of the previous "Halo" games

Nathan is a better FPS player than I am, and although he took on the Halo series on "Heroic" difficulty rather than "Legendary," Halo co-op is a hell of a lot of fun I could take down formidable elite foes in concentrated fire with a scalpel-like military precision that might have made Tom Clancy groan, or perform hilarious acrobatics in the iconic Warthog, and I often tumbled off cliffs

I've played most of the "Halo" games solo, but there is something to be said for playing with a friend, even if the supposedly somber cutscenes are filled with scathing comments So I was looking forward to doing the same with "Halo Infinite"

Sadly, we won't be able to do so until several months after the initial release of "Halo Infinite" The reason for this delay is the complexity of the scale of "Halo Infinite"

"In terms of co-op, you have the opportunity to play the campaign all the way through, which is such a wonderful, open, non-linear take on the "Halo" campaign It's going to be more flexible, where you can take down Banished bases from all angles and play the game your own way," Staten explains But at the same time, it's complex When you think about the save system and all the technology needed to drive a more nonlinear experience, it gets even more complicated in a cooperative experience"

A polished, smooth co-op experience is better than a half-baked co-op experience However, given that "Halo Infinite" was basically delayed for a year - some thought it would be the launch game for the Xbox Series X - we were hoping that the "Halo" we get this fall will be the complete package

The silver lining is that playing the big "Halo" game solo will at least give you the focus to explore the game at your own pace I am hoping that the open-world aspect of "Halo Infinite" will give me plenty to explore When Nathan and I are able to play "Halo Infinite" co-op, there will be many areas that I may have missed the first time around

And to be fair to 343i, the time spent on "Halo Infinite" seems to be paying off well My colleague Jordan Palmer recently experienced a multiplayer test of "Halo Infinite" and raved about the game

Hopefully we will hear more about "Halo Infinite" soon, including an official release date Until then, we look forward to the next installment of "Halo"