Since its launch Halo Infinite has had its fair share of success and was the first game in the franchise to have over 20 million players at launch. But the game went through a troubling time with a lot of bugs, multiplayer issues and connection problems in the last couple of months. The last couple of weeks 343 Industries focussed on “Desync” and “Overall online experience”
In the Halo Infinite March update the dev team explained the things they are currently working on to keep improving the game.
Joseph Staten, Head of Creative at Halo Infinite described the current projects as three different priorities. The priority order contains the following subjects.
1 – Addressing issues negatively impacting the player experience.
2 – Completing Season 2 and delivering it as promised on May 3rd.
3 – Continuing work on Campaign Co-Op, Forge, and Season 3.
Priority #1 – Addressing issues negatively impacting the player experience.
Halo Infinite did a complete overhaul of their game after a shaming first look of their gameplay back in 2020. After that the game improved a lot but fans did have a lot to say at launch. The new type of player progression and Big Team Battle connectivity issues were the main complaints.
Since the launch of Halo Infinite, we have been carefully tracking and analyzing all critical issues negatively impacting players’ experience with the game and supporting services. Thus far, we have prioritized acute, unknown-before-ship issues that have a widespread negative impact on the shipped experience. Some items have been addressed and cleared (e.g., BTB matchmaking), some have had partial improvements but need more work (e.g., anti-cheat), and others are in active development but not-yet-released (e.g., Spartan Career, Campaign Co-Op, and Forge).
To let it be manageable for the team they divided all problems on a so called hotlist and went to work from there. Starting with player progression and BTB but also delaying fan-popular modes like Co-op and Forge at the same time.
Priority #2 – Releasing Season 2
On May 3rd the second season will launch and it will be called “Lone Wolves”. This season will introduce us to the new BTB-map Breaker and Arena map Catalyst and will also add two new spartans alongside new game modes.
Joseph Staten commented on this by saying “During Season 2, we will also be shipping playlist updates, balance changes, new modes, and maps, specifically, one Arena map named “Catalyst” and one BTB map named “Breaker.” The new modes include “Last Spartan Standing”, a free-for-all elimination mode, as well as another new mode named “Land Grab,” plus the return of an updated, all-time favorite mode, “King of the Hill.”
Priority #3 – Campaign improvements, Forge and Co-op
Long awaited Co-Op and Forge seem to be postponed again. With fans already complaining that these options were not available right from the start it seems even season 2 will not introduce us to these modes.
The reality is that it’s going to take more time to land a high-quality, full-featured 4-player network co-op experience in the massive, wide-open world of Halo Infinite. We’re also committed to a great 2-player split-screen co-op experience on all Xbox consoles, from the original Xbox One through Xbox Series X—and the non-linear, wide-open sections of the Campaign present some big challenges for split-screen that have taken us more time to solve.
All this means that we will not be able to ship Campaign network co-op on May 3rd, at the start of Season 2. But we are still aiming to deliver Campaign network co-op later in Season 2
It It is to say that 343 Industries tries really hard to keep their fanbase involved and updates on the game’s progression. Although they need to bring some bad news from time-to-time, they do their best to keep an open communication to the players. Something we cannot say of all developers out there.
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