Halo Infinite's Forge Mode is coming, that's for sure. What's not for sure is exactly when it will come and what it will be.
Amongst the various leaks and rumors that surround Halo Infinite's upcoming Forge Mode are two key questions: when is Forge coming out, and will it come with co-op? Whilst nothing has been precisely announced, we can certainly reveal a few certainties about the mode and perhaps alleviate some of your fears. After all, Forge is one of the core pillars of a modern Halo experience, and 343 Industries will want to get out a quality Forge mode as quickly as humanly possible.
[UPDATE: April 5, 2022]
343 Industries Reveal Forge to be a "Generational Leap Forward", First Details Emerge
In a big new blog entry posted to Halo Waypoint, 343 Industries have revealed that it "broke [their] hearts to not be able to launch Forge alongside the rest of Infinite". The same entry also revealed the first few details we have seen of Forge (not including unofficial leaks and rumors) for quite some time. When we originally wrote this article, back in mid-February, there was little to know. Now, there isn't that much more to tell.
To ensure it meets the bar we’re setting for it to achieve, this massive overhaul to Forge in Infinite just wasn’t able to make it out before the end of last year. It’s very much another generational leap forward in what it will be capable of and brings with it many of the community’s highly requested features which we believe will greatly empower the community to build WAY more impressive and creative gameplay experiences inside of Infinite.
It is interesting to see 343 Industries admit to the shortcomings of their game like this. It is bizarre to see Forge come to late in Halo Infinite's lifecycle. Whilst it seems a bit weird, and is certainly not desirable from both a consumer and sales perspective, it is better to see the developers focus on producing a good product rather than releasing something sub-par.
This isn't so much a nice update on everything new that's coming to the mode. In regards to the actual content of the Forge update, literally nothing is known. All we know is the rough release date (seen below) and some leaks and rumors that have pointed at some pretty cool features. Whether this will all be too little, too late, is yet to be seen.
[ORIGINAL ARTICLE: February 16, 2022]
When Will We Get Halo Infinite's Forge?
We will get Forge Mode for Halo Infinite with the release of the game's third season, according to 343 Industries. When the developers pushed back Season 1's end date, 343 Industries' head of creative, Joseph Staten, made it very clear that there would be no extension to the proposed timeline. It is important to note that there have been rumors circling recently that this may be wrong, and we may be getting Forge sooner than we thought, but officially, we can only go with what 343 Industries have told us. Staten, speaking to Eurogamer, said the following:
Yes, we are extending Season 1, so our goal still remains what I said before, which is to ship campaign co-op with Season 2 and Forge with Season 3... We can't commit to any hard dates right now, because as we're seeing, other things might move up in the priority stack for us.
Thus, it seems that Halo Infinite's long-awaited Forge Mode is at the mercy of whether 343 Industries are able to stick to their current timeline. Season 2 is expected to release in May 2022, six months after the full-game release in December last year. If this sticks, then we can expect future seasons to come every three months there-on out. That would mean approximately an August 2022 release date for Forge. This is complete speculation, though, so take it with a pinch of salt.
Will Forge Have Co-Op in Halo Infinite?
Seeing as the current roadmap has co-op coming out in Season 2, we can pretty safely assume that Forge will be playable in co-op. Now, this is entirely up to whether or not 343 Industries will stick to their words on all of this. They have repeatedly referred to co-op as specifically "campaign co-op" so there is a very real possibility that we won't get Forge co-op anyway.
In the meantime, though, all we can really do is sit here and hope for a quick turnaround. The Gingerbread House Leak was certainly a great sign earlier this week that things were ramping up with Halo Infinite's Forge mode, but there really is nothing concreted down yet. We can probably safely assume that it will be a good mode, and it better be, because if Forge is a flop than we don't really see how Halo Infinite can maintain its longevity in its current state...