While the wait time for Halo Infinite dwindles closer to the end of 2021 with more than half of August behind us now, fans continue to count down the days leading towards ‘Holiday 2021’ projected for the release. But, it is difficult to do so following the impressive Tech Preview Flight that took place previously. With more than 100K that registered (with some complications during the process), many players are wanting in on the new game.
Although Halo Infinite is on the road to being the true sequel that many fans are still waiting to arrive, 343 Industries has elaborated on its plans for the game prior to the full release. As per July’s ‘Inside Infinite’, the team explained the early demonstration will decide what changes are to be applied for the anticipated overflow release for the free-to-play multiplayer version of the game.
Now on Friday, 343 Industries has opened up about the results for Halo Infinite weeks after the first Tech Preview Flight was held. In that, the team shares its next plans for the second Tech Preview Flight that is planned to take place very soon.
You can definitely expect another big scale flight like this with even more people invited. We’re gonna include the same content we had this time, the bots and the weapon drills, but we’re also targeting a full release of 4v4 PvP action and we’re going even bigger and have big team battle. So those are out targets for the next flight.
Sam Hanshaw, Halo Infinite Live Operations Producer
During the conversation, Hanshaw goes on to elaborate further on the stress from the initial Tech Preview Flight. With establishing the number of players participating with bots taking the place of opponents in matches, he does indulge that possibly twice the amount of users ‘flighting’ can be expected for the next test. In terms of what is coming to launch for certain, Head of Creative Joe Staten does verify that local splits-creen for multiplayer is on the way – at least for console.
However, he presses the post launch can expect the same support for the PC version of Halo Infinite. By extension, Staten continues on co-op – campaign co-op – and reveals that despite the hallmark Halo story modes with friends is, the feature will be part of the post-launch roadmap. “Like multiplayer is this burning heart of Halo, campaign coop is fundamental to the Halo experience as well,” Staten explains in the video.
The experience playing campaign together with your family or friends, whether network or split-screen really is [essential]. Unfortunately, as we focus the team for shutdown and really focused on the quality experience for launch, we made the really tough decision to delay shipping campaign co-op for launch and we also made the tough call to delay shipping Forge at launch past launch as well.
As for when players can anticipate each mode to make its way to Halo Infinite, Staten discloses co-op campaign is planned to release in Season 2 for the game while Forge mode is slated for Season 3 following. He further elaborates that the timing of release is based on a three-month interval: three months for co-op campaign & six months for Forge mode. Additionally, it is pressed those in the Flight program can likely find the modes accessed premature to its official release respectively.
In terms of what is aimed for the Halo franchise, Xbox lead Phil Spencer explained to IGN that the series is to last for a decade down the road. “The future of the franchise I think Halo will be here ten years from now. Is Infinite like the lynchpin whether it survives that long? Absolutely not.” You can read the full report by heading here.
What are your thoughts on the recent decisions by 343 Industries?
Halo Infinite is planned to ship sometime in holiday 2021 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
