Video games are often made from a place of passion for many developers. It is very rare to see a developer whether they are an animator, writer, or in PR, who is not driven by wanting to create a great game. Passion is very much at the forefront for many of these developers. Even in games like Call of Duty which feel incredibly formulated have teams of passionate people working behind the scenes trying to deliver the best player experience they can. This is what makes the current problems plaguing 343’s support of Halo Infinite so disappointing.
There is undoubtedly a passionate group of developers behind Halo Infinite. Constantly the studio is under fire for its inability to deliver the content that not only fans desire, but also the content that was promised by the studio. 343 is its own worst enemy when it comes to delivering content to its fans.
The Season of The Delay In Halo Infinite
The latest update from 343 was released earlier this week showcasing a few adjustments to their timeline as well as some changes to content that will be delivered. Possibly one of the most disappointing things was the scrapping of the split screen co-op campaign. This was bundled with the campaign co-op being pushed back to November as it was originally scheduled to release in August. This was then worsened by the pushback of Season 3 into March of 2023, the news quickly divided fans. While there is a wealth of content coming in the Winter update in November with two new maps, the addition of Forge, and Campaign co-op. This is also alongside a new 30-tier free battle pass filled with unlockable cosmetics.
So why the outrage you might wonder? It looks like November will be filled with a wealth of content and the kick-off of Season 3 in March looks promising. The main driver of this outrage is once again 343 appears to be scrambling to deliver essential parts of Halo that were assumed to be part of the game at launch. As it will be almost a year exactly since the launch of this feature. As campaign co-op originally was supposed to launch sometime in May 2022. Which then got pushed back to August, and is now pushed back again to November. Fans are tired of expectations set by the developers themselves not being met. It is one thing if once and a while you don’t meet a goal, because most of the time the majority of the fanbase will roll with it. Once it becomes a pattern then people become fed up with it very quickly.
Live By The Roadmap Die By The Roadmap
A method of communication that has been adopted by many live service game developers is the roadmap. A simple outline that allows developers to communicate to their fans what kind of content that will be coming to the game, as well as a timeline in which fans can expect to see it. It creates a level of transparency that benefits both the fans and developers. Roadmaps do create a certain level of expectations and when you do not deliver on what you promise, fans will likely hold your feet to the fire. This is perhaps one of the biggest challenges that 343 has faced since the launch of Halo Infinite.
The Halo fanbase has become used to an almost repetitive cycle that has befallen 343. The studio will promise a feature like a campaign co-op, and then feature it within a roadmap. Then a few months later a blog post will be released explaining that the feature needs to be pushed back due to development challenges. While this is a perfectly acceptable reason to delay a new feature or mode. 343 keeps giving more defined timelines that they end up not meeting in the end. This creates a level of distrust between fans and the studio. Yes, it is great that you give us a release date for an upcoming feature, but it is not meaningful if you have to delay that feature multiple times.
One thing that 343 has to get better at doing in the future with Halo Infinite is knowing when to put something on the roadmap, versus when to keep it close to their chest. Bringing a fan favorite feature like split screen co-op back to the franchise would be a really cool moment if you unveil it as part of an upcoming update. There is no reason fans need to know about it in advance especially when Halo 5: Guardians did not have this feature. If 343 came out and released a blog post stating that the split-screen co-op campaign was coming next week, fans would lose their mind. Now instead because it was featured on a Season 2 roadmap, and has been ultimately cut from the game. Fans will look at it as a failure from the studio.
This is further amplified as eager fans on social media have managed to figure out a way to access split-screen co-op within Halo Infinite.
So, after checking on Series X, the menu glitches to play #HaloInfinite campaign splitscreen still work: no crash in cutscenes, no issue with AIs, etc.
Never thought I would have to go through this to play with friends at home😅.
I'll probably release a small tutorial later! pic.twitter.com/tVSmt4MmIq— Halo Création (@HaloCreation) September 2, 2022
This only adds fuel to the fire that 343 is failing fans in delivering features. Why can the game be glitched to work in split-screen like this? It’s a valid question that no one seems to have an answer to.
A Great Game Buried By Miscommunication And Over Promising
Perhaps the biggest tragedy of Halo Infinite is that it is a fantastic game at its core. Perhaps one of the most responsive FPS games I have played in recent memory, alongside a throwback to classic arena shooters like Quake with a modern twist. However, in comparison to previous installments in the franchise, it is missing key modes that give Halo its identity. The simple fact is that fans will have to wait almost a year for campaign co-op, a feature beloved by many, is bizarre.
The cancellation of the split-screen co-op campaign hurts for me personally. As someone who fell in love playing split-screen Halo on the original Xbox. Playing Halo with my best friend in split-screen spawned some of my favorite gaming memories. My excitement when it was revealed that it would be coming to Halo Infinite was through the roof. It was a feature that disappeared during Halo 5: Guardians due to technical difficulties, and it was greatly missed by some fans. To see it on the original Season 2 roadmap felt like Halo was getting back to its roots. Now it’s a feature that will likely never see the light of day.
A Missed Opportunity
In terms of its live service delivery, Halo Infinite suffers many of the same flaws as other massive service games at launch. It feels almost ridiculous that every time a massively multiplayer game launches we have to go through the same process of criticism. The game will lack meaningful content outside of cosmetics, it won’t have enough maps or variety in game modes. Fans will be upset for upwards of 6 months to a year at the lack of meaningful content. Then when the content that fans wanted at launch begins to roll out it’s almost like fans forget about the previous mistakes. We are currently seeing this with Battlefield 2042, which is having a big comeback thanks to meeting goals that were promised by Dice as well as delivering meaningful updates that fans had been requesting since launch.
Halo Infinite had such a massive opportunity to gain mindshare at launch thanks to the failures of Call Of Duty: Vanguard and Battlefield 2042. Both games were filled with technical issues galore and were very content-light in comparison to previous installments. Halo Infinite was polished, and fluid with very few technical issues. Especially in comparison to those faced by Battlefield 2042. With the slow rollout of features as well as overly long battle pass seasons. Much of Halo Infinite’s buzz died down very quickly as players began to jump into more content-rich games like Apex Legends and Rainbow Six Siege. While rumors of a new battle royale mode have gained traction for Halo Infinite. It will be interesting to see as 343 gets content rolling out with the help of Certain Affinity if players will begin coming back.
Is This The “End” For Halo Infinite?
With service games, you will never escape the age-old “dead game” argument from overzealous fans. Massive franchises like Destiny have gone through these growing pains, and doom and gloom scenarios many times before. Destiny has had its fair share of criticisms as well as not delivering on its promises in regard to its content delivery. But for all of those moments where Bungie failed to deliver, there are moments like the launch of Witch Queen which saw fans coming together and celebrating a game they love filled to the brim with new content.
Could 343 eventually reach this point? It is impossible to say what the future may hold for Halo Infinite, but one thing is for sure. 343 will have its hands full delivering on this next batch of content coming up in November. I hope for the sake of the studio that they do not disappoint or have to delay any of the major content coming in these major updates. Fans are beyond tired of broken promises and failure to deliver meaningful content. The grifball is in your court 343, I hope as a long-time fan of Halo. That you will be able to knock it out of the park.
