Halo Infinite, the hotly-anticipated sixth mainline entry in the storied franchise, is available now. At least, sort of. 343 Industries and Xbox Game Studios have taken a piecemeal approach with Halo Infinite. Some aspects of the game are currently available to play now, while others won’t be released until late 2022. Here’s when you should expect different parts of Halo Infinite to finally land in 2021, and what we’ll still be waiting for late into 2022.

Multiplayer - Available Now

343 Industries and Xbox dropped a stunner last week when they launched Halo Infinite’s multiplayer suite nearly a month early. Free-to-play and featuring every map, mode, weapon and cosmetic option available at launch, Halo Infinite’s multiplayer suite is  a welcome surprise, even if it's still billed as a beta.

Indeed, 343 Industries is using this early launch to smooth out any issues ahead of the campaign’s launch. Already, the studio is working behind-the-scenes to address the suite’s most significant criticism: Battle Pass experience. While the studio earned praise when they announced that Battle Passes wouldn’t expire after a set amount of time, they've since been criticized for its progression. At launch, progression was 100% tied to limited in-game challenges that were often time consuming. The studio has since alleviated that by offering 50XP per completed match on top of the challenges. Still, progressing through the Battle Pass remains slow and will likely need more tweaks moving forward.

Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is no doubt fun, pulling inspiration from the earlier Bungie-developed entries in the franchise rather than 343’s more modern takes. The suite features tight gunplay, well-designed maps and strong optimization across Xbox Series X|S, PC and Xbox One. Hopefully, 343 Industries can apply more fixes to the game’s progression systems in the coming weeks.

Campaign - Available December 8

Halo Infinite’s campaign launches on December 8. The sixth mainline entry, Halo Infinite puts players solely back in the shoes of Master Chief after sharing the spotlight with Locke in Halo 5: Guardians. Set 18 months after the events of Halo 5, Infinite takes Master Chief to Zeta Halo as he attempts to locate a new AI dubbed The Weapon and end the Cortana and Forerunner threat for good.

Standing in Master Chief’s way are The Banished, a splinter faction of the Covenant first introduced in Halo Wars 2. Led by Atriox and allied with the mysterious Harbinger, the Banished aim to crush the remnants of the UNSC and slay Master Chief.

Halo Infinite’s campaign will be available on Xbox Series X|S, PC and Xbox One. It launches without a core feature of the franchise, though.

Co-op Campaign - Expected May 2022 at the Earliest

That’s right, Halo Infinite will be the first entry in the franchise to launch without any form of co-op campaign. The studio prepared fans back in August not to expect the feature on December 8. At the time, 343 Industries suggested that campaign co-op wouldn’t arrive until after Season 1 wraps. Initially, seasons were expected to run three months, but that’s no longer the case.

Season 1 has been extended to May 2022. Speaking with Eurogamer, Joseph Staten, Head of Creative at 343 Industries, confirmed that the studio aims to deliver campaign co-op in Season 2. He declined, however, to say when the feature would arrive during the season. So it might be May 2022 at the earliest, but it could also be well into the summer when we finally get the feature.

Forge - Expected Late Summer 2022 at the Earliest

The final piece of the Halo Infinite puzzle, Forge won’t arrive until much later in 2022. In the same interview with Eurogamer, Staten confirmed that the plan to launch Forge in Season 3 remains in place. Due to Season 1’s extension, however, we’re now looking at a late summer start for Season 3. Much like the co-op campaign, we don’t know when during the season the beloved map and mode editor will finally launch.

Halo Infinite is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC and Xbox One. Players can download the multiplayer portion for free right now. The campaign will set you back $59.99, but will also be available through Xbox Game Pass.