In an update that no Halo: Infinite fans have taken well, it appears that the co-op multiplayer feature has once again been delayed by 343 Industries.
The feature was set to arrive alongside Season 2 on Tuesday, 3 May. The recent announcement has taken this date off the table and simply replaced it with the hope that it will still launch within Season 2.
Co-op was one feature that core fans of the franchise were expecting to be present at launch. Not only was it missing alongside Forge mode, but the constant pushback of release dates is becoming a sour topic.
343 have assured fans that it's working on the mode and wants to ensure that when it launches, it does so with no issues and with the high standard of quality that fans expect. Some have been quick to point out, however, that this delay could then impact the arrival for Forge mode in Season 3.
Responding to this criticism, 343 stated that a dedicated team are working on the co-op feature and it's not a case of taking resources away from any other area of the game to make this feature happen.
It's still considered a baffling decision to have not launched with co-op but the idea that we could be waiting up to 10 months for it to be available brings into question the readiness of Halo: Infinite when it was finally released. It's looking more and more likely that the Campain and Multiplayer modes were prioritised to ship ASAP while in-demand features like co-op and Forge could just be thrown in when ready.
Just because you show fans a roadmap for content, doesn't mean it's all been swept under the table. Halo: Infinite has seen its Steam player count come crashing down in recent months.
It once boasted an average of over 51,000 average players and currently sits at just over 4,000. 343 and Xbox Studios will have to look at the decisions they made in the lead up to launch and ask if they made the right decision at the time but perhaps the wrong one when it comes to long-term planning.