343 Industries addresses the absence of Halo Infinite’s campaign at gamescom

Laurent Giret

Halo Infinite has been in a lot of conversations since last week, with Microsoft first announcing some bad news a week ago. Halo Infinite won’t have co-op campaign and the Forge map editor mode at launch, which will both be coming with free post-launch updates.

We did get some exciting Halo Infinite news at gamescom this week, with Microsoft announcing the game’s December 8 release date and opening pre-orders for a Limited Edition Halo Infinite Xbox Series X console and Xbox Elite Controller. We also saw a new trailer for the game’s free-to-play multiplayer mode, but the Campaign was still nowhere to be seen.

Microsoft did open pre-orders for the $59.99 Campaign this week, even though we haven’t seen anything from it since last year’s poorly received first gameplay video. In the latest “Inside Infinite” update posted on Halo Waypoint yesterday, Creative Director Joseph Staten explained why 343 Industries chose not to show anything new about Halo Infinite’s Campaign at gamescom this week, and this is all about allowing the team to focus on what really matters.

“We’re at a critical phase in the flight that is Halo Infinite, so it’s extremely important to avoid distractions and stay focused on mission-critical tasks only. For Campaign, that means putting maximum effort into ensuring the wide-open, adventure-filled experience you’ll all get to play on December 8th is as great as it can possibly be. And gameplay demos and trailers not only take a huge amount of effort to do well, they also take cycles away from bugs and other shutdown tasks,” Staten wrote.

The Creative Director added that he has already completed Halo Infinite’s campaign multiple times and that he’s still discovering new things during his latest playthrough. “No matter how many times I play, Halo Infinite remains, fundamentally, super fun to play—and we’re very eager to share all the fun with you through captured gameplay, trailers, and other content once we get this plane safely on the ground,” he added.

Do you think 343 Industries is right to wait a little bit more to show Halo Infinite’s campaign again, even though we’ve already seen other blockbusters like Far Cry 6 and Call of Duty Vanguard in much greater detail? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Halo Infinite (Campaign)
Halo Infinite (Campaign)