Over the last few years, Halo has had a really rough go of things, mainly from 343 Industries, who took over the franchise starting with their first entry, Halo 4, and led the charge with subsequent sequels. The latest of which, Halo Infinite, has been an unmitigated disaster since launch with the absence of Forge, Co-Op, and content to keep the “live service”, well, alive.
Now, after nearly a year of being out and seeing a steady decline of players ready to give up on 343i, the studio once again proves that they are incapable of handling the Halo franchise properly when they revealed that not only will Season 3 be delayed until March of next year (creating a literal 10-month-long season) but also that an in-demand feature in the form of split-screen “couch” co-op has been canceled.
Over on HaloWaypoint.com, you can see the roadmap for what is coming along with a link to a YouTube post (both of which are also below) where Joseph Staten, Sean Baron, and Brian Jarrard have a “roundtable discussion” about the current state of Halo Infinite, player feedback, the studio’s priorities and how they are reallocating resources to focus on things that players want to see while delaying and canceling other aspects of their dying game.
In our latest dev update, members of the 343 Industries team discuss the studio's priorities, player experience goals, and offer details on what you can expect with #HaloInfinite in the coming months. https://t.co/C8jAYzZ3Jf pic.twitter.com/LSeEwE22Na
— Halo (@Halo) September 1, 2022
Here's a look at our updated roadmap for the upcoming Winter Update and Season 3: https://t.co/9UdmPicUl0 pic.twitter.com/V8X6i1DlmT
— Halo (@Halo) September 1, 2022
Fans will possibly find some redemption in all this bad news as 343i plans to release Forge in its beta state in November, something that was initially planned for a September release. 343 says that while Forge will release in beta, they assured fans in their post that Forge will have all the features players expect. However, we will just have to wait and see how accurate their statement is on that subject as 343i hasn’t had the best track record of keeping promises.
At this point in time, there may be some “white knights” that rally in support of 343 Industries online but you have to admit that the absence of Forge, local split-screen “couch” co-op, online campaign co-op, countless missing game modes, and more are all things that should have arrived when Halo Infinite released in December of 2021. And after nearly a year of all these features and modes still missing, being canceled, or delayed, the only thing infinite about Halo at this point is 343 Industries consistently being an infinite disappointment.
