Halo Infinite Co-op Release Date Has Been Revealed
After a messy launch and months of fixing up errors that have resulted from fixing something else entirely, 2021’s Halo Infinite is finally getting a co-op campaign. The game’s developer, 343 Industries, has announced that the co-op campaign is about to enter a beta-testing phase, expected to run from July 11 through July 22.
According to IGN, the best testing of the co-op campaign will include the entire campaign and will be available to anyone who owns Halo Infinite, has Xbox Game Pass, and are members of Halo Insiders. Console owners aren’t excluded from testing either; however, those interested will have to join the Xbox Insider Program, and signups will be available for a few days only, ending on July 5. Those interested in testing out this beta preview should hurry and sign up for respected Insider programs to gain earlier access to the long-anticipated gameplay feature.
Players who gain or have gained access to the Insider program will need to download the campaign build and initiate a new playthrough. However, 343 Industries stated that gamers wouldn’t be able to carry any existing progress over to the new campaign, and any progress made in the beta won’t be transferable back to the retail version of Halo Infinite. It’s important to note that this isolation lasts only during testing, and once the co-op campaign officially launches, all co-op progress will count as a regular playthrough for all the involved parties.
This is standard procedure in beta-testing on public-test servers and game editions and serves to prevent gamers from gaining an unfair advantage over the rest of the community once the new content officially drops. The only unfair advantage they might have over those who haven’t set foot in any beta content is knowledge, which is the main benefit of Insider programs. So, all missions completed by the in-game Fireteam will be aggregated across all save slots and reflected in Halo Infinite’s in-game world.
In other words, missions that are completed by all Fireteam members are marked as complete, while missions that aren’t complete by all members will be marked as incomplete. That way, no Spartan is left behind on in-game mission progress. This is a pretty cool feature, and what’s even better about it is the fully-supported cross-platform play, which will make the co-op experience the same for all gamers involved, regardless of the platform they play Halo Infinite on.
Besides testing out the upcoming co-op campaign, the beta bill also addresses any lingering issues currently plaguing the game, as well as those currently present in the beta build ahead of the full-feature release. 343 Industries strongly encourages Insider players to report any technical or gameplay issues they might experience, allowing the development team to address said issues ahead of launch.
343 Industries plans to perform a full rollout for both the game’s co-op campaign and the options to replay game missions in August, allowing gamers to revisit the campaign with their friends, and mimic the awesome single-player experience and progress shared among friendly gamers.
