343 Industries has shared its latest development roadmap, and its not good news.
The biggest news is that the games next season has been delayed to March 2023. Thats an excruciatingly long time to wait. For context, Battlefield 2042, which released around the same time and also suffered delays, is also on Season 2, with the next Season planned for the end of this year.
The bad news doesnt end there, as split-screen local co-op has now been cancelled outright. “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 in an accompany development video.
Watch on YouTube
343 appears to be aware of how long players have been waiting, so as a stopgap the developer is releasing a “Winter Update” in November.
The update will contain two new maps: Detachment and Argyle, a new game mode, as well as quality of life improvements.
But the biggest features coming with the update is the addition of Forge mode and campaign online co-op.
Forge mode will make an appearance as a beta, while campaign online co-op will be released as a fully-fledged mode after months of closed beta testing.
As for Season 3, expect to see new Arena and Big Team Battle maps, a new weapon, new game modes and of course a new Battle Pass.
It does however feel to be too little too late. In October, Activisions highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will launch, as will Blizzards Overwatch 2. The FPS genre is incredibly crowded right now – and only getting more crowded as the months go on.