343 Industries has revealed its planned 2022 roadmap for Halo Infinite, and it includes a late August release window for the long-awaited campaign network co-op.
All the details were revealed by Halo Infinite’s head of creative Joseph Staten on Halo Waypoint, and while they are subject to change, they give a good picture as to what Halo Infinite fans can expect for the rest of the year. 343 also notes that the timeframe will “expand as we announce longer-term initiatives” and that the “roadmap is an evolving document.”
The roadmap begins by focusing on Season 2 “Lone Wolves”, which will run from May 3 to November 7. We already knew that Season 2 would launch with a new 100 tier Battle Pass, two new maps in Catalyst (Arena) and Breaker (BTB) and three new game modes in King of the Hill, Land Grab, and Last Spartan Standing.
What was made a bit clearer were some of the events and new features that will take arrive during the course of Lone Wolves. These include campaign network co-op in late August and the Forge Open Beta in September. These release windows are targets and may change, but it does put the progress of their development into clearer view.
As for Forge, 343 decided to forgo a “large scale formal flighting program and go right into open beta.” Once it is launched, it will not go away and will continue to evolve and grow over time.
Season 2 will also feature a new Fracture mode in Entrenched – with its first week starting on May 24 – and two narrative events in Interference from May 3 – May 16 and Alpha Pack from July 19 – August 1. These “multiplayer narrative events” will “place your Spartan in the center of an evolving Seasonal storyline.”
343 also gave a brief look at what fans can expect from the currently untitled Season 3 that will begin on November 8. It will bring with it a new Battle Pass, maps, modes, sandbox items, narrative events, fracture event, and campaign splitscreen co-op.
The lack of consistent content was also addressed, with 343 saying it is very aware it needs to do more, but it won’t do so at the cost of its team’s health.
“We know we need to deliver more content and more features more quickly,” 343 wrote. “Staying true to [a] priority zero [of team health] means that sometimes we need to slow down in order to stay healthy and move faster later. But we’re also aggressively looking at ways to accelerate.”
In closing, 343 shared it would be releasing “Drop Pods” of quality of life fixes as they are ready – most likely once per month – and that it will be doing a deep dive into more about Season 2 and the roadmap on April 27 at 1pm PT/4pm ET/9pm BST.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.