In the latest development update from 343 Industries, the team explained that due to Halo Infinite’s more open campaign structure there will have to be a significant limitation imposed on co-op parties. This limitation is what 343 is calling the “Area-Of-Operations” system and the restriction it imposes will prevent Halo Infinite players from separating too far from one another.

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What 343 has had to address is a technical limitation tied to having multiplayer players in a single Halo Infinite game world. Keeping co-op players together is the only way to maintain a healthy technical game state. As such, all players in a Halo Infinite co-op Fireteam will have to stay within a 1000-ft radius. Moving beyond 800 ft will first prompt a warning, followed by death at 1000 ft and a respawn closer to the other co-op players.

343 says that a radius this size should be more than enough for any Halo Infinite Fireteam to tackle even the largest of in-world objectives together, citing the Banished dig site as an example. It just likely won’t allow a Fireteam to split up and tackle multiple objectives at the same time. This idea is in line with what 343 describes as its philosophy of “Playing Together,” which it says is the entire point of playing co-op. But it’s probably safe to assume that technical limitations are at the heart of this issue.

It’s always been an inevitability that 343 would have to make certain trade-offs to add co-op to Halo Infinite. In turn, however, this extra time has allowed 343 to flesh out some exciting features. Halo Infinite co-op will be open to 4-player Fireteams with shared progression, it will be fully cross-play enabled across PC, consoles, and cloud, and it will allow players to replay missions with relative ease.

Halo Insiders will be able to access Halo Infinite’s Campaign network Co-op and Mission Replay test flight starting the week of July 11. Once 343 is confident in the state of co-op and all its features, all Halo Infinite players will be able to play. Expect further updates in the weeks to come.

Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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