Halo Infinite’s Split-Screen Co-Op Has Been Canceled, As Studio Focuses On Live Service

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries is growing and improving the game in a number of exciting ways, but unfortunately for some, the promised local couch co-op feature has been canceled.

The studio confirmed today that it has canceled local campaign co-op for Halo Infinite because it is choosing to allocate development resources elsewhere. 343’s developers will focus on Halo Infinite’s live service, and not on local couch co-op.

“In order to improve and accelerate ongoing live service development, and to better address player feedback and quality of life updates, we have reallocated studio resources and are no longer working on local campaign split-screen co-op,” 343 said.

Whether or not this is a temporary of permanent shift away from developing local couch co-op is unclear. Either way, it’s a bummer. Especially so because 343’s Bonnie Ross confirmed years ago that all future Halo FPS games would offer local couch co-op after Halo 5: Guardians dropped the feature.

In 2015, Xbox’s Phil Spencer said Halo 5 didn’t have local couch co-op in part because people generally prefer to play online instead of locally. “We see the robustness of what Xbox Live is today and where people are playing across Xbox Live–you at your house, me at our house. We know that’s the vast majority of the co-op play,” he said. “With Halo 5, the team really wanted to focus on making that experience great, both visually on the screen that you’re looking at, and all the systems in place.”

In 2017, Halo boss Bonnie Ross said not including split-screen in Halo 5 was one of the “painful learnings” that Microsoft faced after taking over ownership of the Halo brand from Bungie. She went on to promise, “For any FPS going out forward, we will always have split-screen in.”

As for what is coming to Halo Infinite, the game’s biggest update ever, the Winter Update, launches on November 8. It adds the much-requested Match XP feature, a Forge beta, online campaign co-op, and more. Looking further out, Season 3: Echoes Within is coming in March 2023 with the Bandit Rifle and more.