Halo Infinite's head of creative, Joseph Staten has clarified why the early release of the game's multiplayer mode is being treated as a beta until the full game's official release date on December 8. 343 has also extended the multiplayer mode's first season Battle Pass until May 2, 2022.
On the Halo Waypoint blog Staten explained that the surprise launch of the game was being treated as a beta – meaning you could potentially run into bugs, see changes, and more – because the team expects an even larger influx of players next month and wants to be able to prepare.
"Our previous Multiplayer Technical Previews went a long way to battle-testing our services and infrastructure," wrote Staten. "But as we prepare for a significant increase in the number of players jumping into Halo Infinite on launch day, December 8th, we want to ensure all our systems are good-to-go. While you may experience some bumps and bugs during this beta period, it does mark the official start of Halo Infinite Season 1, with all day-one maps and modes enabled as well as the full Season 1 Battle Pass."
While those past Technical Previews didn't allow participants to keep their progression, Staten made clear that that was not the case for the beta: "All the Battle Pass and customization items you earn or purchase during the beta will stay with you after December 8th."
Staten also pointed out that multiplayer's Season 1 content, including its Battle Pass, has been extended until May 2, 2022 – much longer than the three month lifespan 343 originally announced.
"We made the decision to extend Season 1 to give ourselves more time to ensure Season 2 meets our high quality bar and so we can finish development for Season 2 in a healthy and sustainable way for our team," wrote Staten.
Staten says that Season 1 will see more content added as a result, including events, cosmetics, and more. The game is currently giving all players who start the game before November 23 a set of free items (see gallery above), after which the game's first event, Fracture: Tenrai will begin. After the game's launch on December 8, 343 will announce more Season 1 events.
That Battle Pass extension will make it a little easier to reach the higher-level rewards, but it won't solve the community's biggest concern right now, which is that progressing up that Pass is something of a grind at the moment.
Looking further ahead, Season 2, campaign co-op, and Forge mode will all be discussed in January.
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