343 Industries Talked About, But Decided Against Delaying Halo Infinite Past 2021

If it meant delay the game or cut coop

They made the right call. In my eyes, I mean coop for me is the life blood of Halo campaign but they are gonna add it later

Ultimately really poor messaging. Could've said this at E3 and really built a nice marketing campaign around it. All about the messaging, telling fans early & managing expectations. I'm guessing this is why a collector's or limited edition isn't yet available for preorder

Although I rarely use the features, co-op and forge are extremely important launch features. Avoiding campaign spoilers for around 3 months will be impossible and so the campaign is ruined for all those co-op players. Meanwhile without forge, custom games are pretty much fully gone as well and there's a high chance the number of multiplayer maps will be limited too. Delay is essential.

The problem will be whether or not what's there justifies the price in the mind of mainstream people because multiplayer will be free.

See even if us core fans enjoy the campaign the mainstream narrative will be, "it's not enough", " game's early access even though they delayed it a year" etc. unless it's an amazing campaign that's 15-20 hours long. Or they plan to add new ones every year for free like Avengers gets.

Will it be more like Halo 3's campaign or 5's? If it's like 5, for $60 and that's all it ever is, it'll severely damage the series' reputation.

I’ll mostly pay for the campaign solo, so no impact for me. But understand that this is a big deal for other players, especially couch co-op

These omissions are sad but temporary. If anything it's odd they won't just launch multiplayer first by itself.

I don't want to add to the negativity because there are plenty of clowns out there who look for any reason to hate on halo....but it does make you question wtf they have been doing and how was this originally going to be released last year.....

At the end of the day though I would prefer they delay things than release things in a mess

I ain't bothered about forge personally but I would of liked to play this either couch co op with the missus or online with my mate

Thing I don’t like about evolving is that you can play through the campaign and complete the game. Than if they add certain things that would have improved the campaign later, then you would have to return and play the campaign again to play it at its best.
Anyway they should delay until October 2022.
We have farcry 6, COD and battlefield which Xbox is sponsoring and advertising.
To many FPS.
If Halo went October 2022 it would have the FPS market almost to itself, apart from maybe another cod.
The Halo Infinite carry on, sounds worse every time 343 open their mouths.
For me this is the most an Xbox in house studio has managed to mess up ever.
I’m gonna call it now, if this ends up bad for Halo, the studio will leave Xbox studios or get sent on a different direction and left to slowly die.

I'm glad they're not gonna delay it, Halo needs to come out this holiday.. It sucks for people who wanna play co op but it's still coming 3 monthes later after release, I don't think you can delay Halo again just because of the co op..

You'd think they'd have showed some campaign footage by now if they're so confident this will release this year , we got to see horizon forbidden west gameplay & that looked great & it's still rumoured to be delayed to next year

"It's a live game, it's never meant to be done"

My hate for live games aside. If this is the case, why bother to delay it to 2021 in the first place?

What's changed in the last year?

Personally, I’d be happy to wait for the full experience.

It might lead me to enjoy Multiplayer at launch and then wait to play the campaign when coop is launched so I can get the best experience of it with my son.

Regardless of my personal plans all this does is raise questions about 343…

@Residentsteve01
That’s a valid point about Rare, should be making games on a naughty dog level. I think they just sent them in a different direction for some reason. A lot of Kinect stuff if I remember rightly.
Certain Microsoft studios seem to need better management and micro management to get their act together.
You cannot manage, direct etc every studio the same way.
Playground games, turn 10 and the coalition seem to be ok left alone.
The new studios, time will tell.

@The_New_Butler Surely you’re not comparing NG+ to a mode for Halo that has been in every previous game and was fully expected to be in it?

@The_New_Butler I mean it’s obvious you’ve never played the campaigns with friends then.

They’re releasing a half baked game because they were incapable of completing a game in 6 years.

Adding a mode that was announced and supposed to be in the game because you failed to get the job done is not the same as adding NG+ in any form or fashion.

I view this attempted argument as deflection and trying to pin something similar on Sony. Sony has had a crapload of bad press they deserved but this is soooo far from similar.

@The_New_Butler The game is half baked because they aren’t releasing what they said they were going to. How is that disputable?

Sucker Punch adding a free unannounced MP mode should be applauded because it’s awesome. TLoU2 MP was never announced as coming with the main game. Even back in 2019 they said it wasn’t releasing with the game. So both of your examples are false.

I’m not sure how Sony delaying games has anything to do with Halo not getting a mode everyone was expecting. It seems like some whataboutism.

343 and MS just screwed the pooch here. No way around it.

@The_New_Butler
I will be so glad when this game gets released then we can all have go at the campaign and multiplayer I guess. If it sucks and gets hit hard by the critics then we can ask for the resignation of 343 if it is great and it needs to be amazing campaign wise for me then we can breath a sigh of relief and enjoy.
Been with Halo since day one so they have a lot to live up to, bless em.
Being an operations project manager, I would love to know nearly 6 years ago how the game and studio have been managed through this. A fly on the wall, the decisions made etc.

@The_New_Butler
Spot on, let’s wait until release and see.
As for Rare and Everwild, maybe to much creative freedom was given and not enough directional management. The trouble is if you stifle creative freedom then nothing new and original is released, but to much can lead to cancelled projects, delays and a bad end game.

@The_New_Butler You can't use Game Pass as an excuse as there will be plenty of people that still buy the game, and while I could care less, plenty of people consider Co-Op Campaign to be an essential feature they've used throughout the whole series.

Again, I could care less as I don't really play much of anything with people online anymore, so I doubt I would have played the Campaign in co-op anyways. Still, this is a lose/lose situation for Microsoft as people will be extremely disappointed if it releases without essential features, and if they delay it again it will be borderline embarrassing since this is their flagship title and it's already been delayed for a year once.

Honestly, I'd delay it if only because they also have Forza Horizon 5 coming out. Yes, it would be disappointing for people, but at least people would be getting a complete game eventually and Forza Horizon is easily big enough to carry the torch so to speak for a while.

@Residentsteve01
Yes the coalition and playground games for me.
But with new studios like developers id etc there should be a good crop of games.

@KilloWertz
One of the reasons I would possibly delay is the FPS schedule this year 2021
Farcry 6, COD and of course battlefield, that Xbox are sponsors for.
That’s 3 more FPS all in a couple of months, dam crazy.
If they went fall 2022 with Halo there would only be another COD on the FPS release schedule.

@Dezzy70 well they don’t have to delay a year. If they just delayed the 3 months they are saying then they can launch with Co-Op at least which would be a much better look. Plus, as you say, less FPS competition in early 2022. Though I feel like Halo doesn’t need to worry too much about the others especially as it’s on Gamepass and they aren’t.

For me, the Halo campaign IS co-operative and I wouldn’t want to play it single-player.

@K1LLEGAL
I will only play single player on campaign and of course through game pass.
But yes March 2022 could be a good release date.
Perhaps they could draft more help in from the coalition and maybe playground games to help this dam studio entrusted with this amazing franchise.

@Dezzy70 yea not sure about how the game will evolve over time but would love to see the other studios add their touch to it; that could be cool (and yea they could help speed things up a bit!).

I'm not expecting much from this game anymore to be honest. 343i have given me no reason to change my mind over my feelings that they are a company in dire problems with mismanagement.
Thankfully I have Forza Horizon 5 to fall back on after the inevitable disappointment of the new Halo campaign.

I have no trust in 343i. I will stick to Halo 5 mp until this game is completed.

@The_New_Butler I’m just unable to comprehend how you equate extra modes that were NEVER announced for the games with something we were told would be in it. That’s some serious mental gymnastics.

@The_New_Butler True, but if that was truly the case for everybody, Microsoft wouldn't release any games for sale digitally or on disc. Once again, plenty of people will buy the game and be disappointed that it's missing two essential features when it could have been delayed again.

@Dezzy70 Even if they just delayed it to include Co-Op Campaign and then wait on Forge, it would release well before next Fall. People would still be disappointed, but it would minimize it at least. Even waiting on Forge, it would likely be out before the Fall. That is if they actually meet the time frames they laid out there.

@KilloWertz given the facts I’ve seen a ton of polls like this one around the net right now an every one of them “don’t delay the game” is winning. I’m really not sure how many people are going to be as disappointed as you saying. Like I get what you are saying but literally look at what’s winning here. Maybe they will be but clearly they’d rather play the game then wait.

For me, I don’t mind not having the coop campaign at launch. I play it with my son and all, but single player seems to be the intended campaign experience. The story goes kind of dumb when trying to justify both characters and often ignores the second character completely. Like I said, it’s fun to play coop with my son, and I will when it comes out, but it completely detracts from the story experience for me. My first playthrough would be single player whether it launched with the coop or not.

How can you have a game held for delay months before it's set to release, all the marketing programs are already locked and running, you delay not just months but an entire year, and then when that year comes up, it's STILL not ready, and you have to release it incomplete, we'll patch the rest in later?! How incomplete was this 5 years old project a year ago, weeks before intended launch with management having no clue it was so rough it made cyberpunk look good?

@The_New_Butler This is one of reasons not as big of a fan of gamepass this idea of like “it’s free” so it’s all gravy. Like to me I would much rather spend $100 on a special game then get a meh game for free. Not saying halo going to be meh I’m more so saying my concern is due to the cheapness of gamepass there’s no pressure to actually deliver those generational type single player experiences cus hey it’s the best value in gaming.

@Yfs11six otoh there's returnal the roguelite shmup and ratchet and clank 8 hour adventure for $70. Quality though they may be, there's an argument to be made that they're just as stingy an offering as a cut corners for Game pass deal.

But halo isn't slipshod because it's game pass. It's because it's 343. At $100 they probably would have released the unfinished game a year ago and patched it together later. Poor Staten sounds like the point man picking up the pieces of a project a lot more broken than we even thought it was. We went from "I feel really good about halo" to "delayed" to (a year later) it's still not ready yet. Doesn't sound like it was anywhere close to release when Phil thought it was golden and the monster/taco bell/Doritos marketing was already active. Maybe Microsoft should buy cdpr to finish halo lol

@The_New_Butler You and I have agreed on a lot of stuff where people didn’t agree with us but I’m sorry I just can’t see eye to eye here.

It’s not a messaging thing at all.

One case (Halo) is they said it would have this and it doesn’t. The other cases did not claim they would launch with something and didn’t.

@NEStalgia You would have to skip all the cuteness and run straight through levels to do R&C in 8 hours. Lol. I am no fan of the $70 price tag.

@Yfs11six I’ve had a couple friends also voice this concern to me about GP. They think it will quickly become quantity over quality with games because it’s so cheap. I want to tell them they’re wrong but time will tell.

@FatalBubbles I hope I’m wrong and Microsoft delivers incredible single player games. To be fair gamepass may not be meant for me there’s a lot of people who love the cheaper price tag and are okay with a lot of solid experiences. Personally I play games for the memorable experiences I love the single player narrative driven game and I wish Microsoft was doing that as well so think selfishly am a bit bummed cus I think to myself man imagine it they have a last of us god of war horizon ghost etc I would have double the incredible narrative experiences but it may also just be a situation where that’s not Microsoft’s aim as well. We shall see I’m really hoping we get some though.

@Yfs11six I love single player narrative driven games as well. With not much coming out from Sony lately I’ve been getting great mileage of GP so I won’t complain about it for now.

I think it's the right call, if the campaign and multiplayer are/will be ready then there's no reason to delay. But that's the key, they need to be ready, a small bug or glitch here or there is bound to happen, but if there's a lot of problems with the campaign and multiplayer at launch after all this, i don't think the game or 343 will recover.

I have a feeling the internet "influencers" are making this out to be a much bigger deal than it is. They keep saying ***** like "Halo IS co-op!" and I'm like really? I've never touched the co-op, and I've been here since Halo CE back in 2001.

@XxEvilAshxX There's people who don't touch either the campaign or MP. Does that mean they could cut one or the other and it would be OK because you'd have some arguing "well I never used it so there's on way that feature was important to Halo"?.

Best decision, delay parts that need to be polished more. We get acquainted with the core game and play some modes later. People already judging the SP that isn't even released yet, good one!

The loss of campaign co-op at launch isn’t as big as many fans make out and Forge is a nice feature to have but ultimately only for a tiny %age of fans.

The rest of us get campaign on Gamepass (because nobody is paying $50 for it) and a nice ongoing multiplayer that plays really well.

I kind of feel sorry for all the hard working men and women at 343 trying their best to ship us an awesome game. Everyone makes mistakes and the last year or so has been very difficult for us all. Let's cut them some slack and keep out fingers crossed that infinite is the great game we all hope it is.

Feel also kind of sorry for the hard working team at 343, but.....

IMHO they did mess up the Halo Franchise. They went into a complete different directions than Halo 1/2/3/ODST/Reach and that's something I blame them for:

• I really dislike the story of the Forerunners and the forerunner enemies and I even more dislike the Halo 5 story. Damn I am hoping for such a nice twist/intertwining story line like Reach with Halo CE when playing Infinite
• Should have kept the Banished/Brutes as enemies or perhaps introduce new enemies but not these stupid robo dogs and other prometheans
• Halo 4/5 MP is more like an intergalactic robot shooter. No Halo vibe at all. The MP levels like Haven or Monolith are uninspiring pieces of turds! Especially, considering the inclusion of these stupid war-mechs
• I had absolutely no jaw-dropping moments playing those dark/bling bling single player levels of Halo 4 and 5. Utter trash

So I blame them, but I give them one more chance to bring back the Master Chief and I do believe they can, after having seen all that blood, sweat and tears spoiled! But delaying the co-op is indeed a WTF moment, how could they

Between being incomplete, the bad press, and all the other games releasing this holiday, I feel it would be better to push Halo to somewhere less crowded, so it isn't immediately buried.

@Richnj Co-op is a feature, not content. If they did delay MP or Campaign, they'd be holding back half the game, in which case, yeah people would have the right to be upset.

@XxEvilAshxX OK, let's put it another way. Say they made it co-op only. You had to play 4 player co-op through the campaign, there was no option for single player.

Would you be upset?

@FatalBubbles I think that’s where it just comes down to personal preference I gotta series x & ps5 at launch and have used my series x maybe 2-3 times since launch. I already paid for gamepass a year in advance because it was on sale and I’ve tried to find things on there to play but nothing interests me that I’ve seen but keep in mind I’m not the I’m bored I’ll just play games to play games type for me if I don’t love a game I got enough things going on in my life I won’t play video games unless I got something I really want to play. So with Sony I was able to play miles morales then demon souls which took a while cus i sucked lol. Then played the pathless. From there I played sackboy with my wife. Then I got into ac Valhalla digital foundary said it ran better on ps5 so bought it n played it on there. Played FF 7 remake. Then played disco elysium which was freaking incredible. Then I played returnal which took me a lot of time cus I suck at rouge type games. Then got ratchet & clank now playing through ghost iki island expansion & I’m hyped to play death stranding directers cut next month so ps5 I have probably played 15-20 hours a week every week since launch. So I think it just comes down to personal preference like I said maybe gamepass just not meant for me which is fine.

@Yfs11six It’s definitely changed my buying patterns. I spend far less money on games now since I got an Xbox. Using the MS reward program I don’t pay for gamepass at all. So after getting the console I can game for $0 on the Xbox whereas I just keep having to spend money on PS5. Which I have, Sackbioy, AC Valhalla, Miles, R&C, Returnal, it’s just a lot harder to spend money on games when I’ve got 100+ to play for free.

Neither way is right/wrong or good/bad.

@FatalBubbles & that’s exactly what I’m saying is I think PlayStation & Xbox are going different routes in that way. I think PlayStation is going for the high end experiences where Xbox is going more for the variety and value play. Selfishly I wish Xbox had PlayStation level exclusives I would be beyond happy to pay $70 for 10 games from Xbox if they had the last of us god of war types that would be my dream because then I would have double the incredible single player games to play but again that’s me being selfish and I’m glad your enjoying game pass I know there is a lot of people who really appreciate the value it brings to them I’m just not one of them. Personally I would much rather Xbox charge $100 a game if I got the triple a incredible story driven games then pay $1 for gamepass but I know I’m in the minority there gamepass just may not be for me but that’s completely okay.

@FatalBubbles The more I think about it I think it just depends on how/why you game. I think if you just enjoy gaming and game as a hobby gamepass is freaking phenomenal for that type of gamer. For me personally I game for the memorable experiences same reason I watch movies I don’t watch movies to watch movies not a movie guy I watch movies for the inceptions the good will hunting’s those special type movies that’s leave me in awe that stick with me years later. Sony has done that for me over past decade. I’ll never forget the feelings I had when I finished last of us 1 & 2 it was just incredible. Same with horizon god of war uncharted series breath of wild with Nintendo level of games that just leave you in awe. I don’t think gamepass aims to be that and that’s completely cool I can get them from Nintendo & Sony which is completely cool I just selfishly want that from Xbox too lol.

@Yfs11six Can’t disagree with you at all. I use the PS5 for the story driven games they have as exclusives and get my fill of everything else on Xbox these days.

I told my boss my project wasn't incomplete - it was just a live service. It did not go well.

This should have been an Xbox Series exclusive. I'm fairly sure that accommodating Xbox One consoles has slowed development and left us with a less impressive overall experience.