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Surprise! Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is available right now

Otto Kratky
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In a surprise announcement at the end of today’s 20th anniversary Xbox stream, Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries announced that the game’s free-to-play multiplayer is available starting today.

Xbox 20th Anniversary Celebration Livestream

While this version of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is a beta, players will be able to access all of the game’s Season 1 content, including all of its maps, weapons, and cosmetics. Players can also start progressing through the game’s first season pass, and will able to unlock additional cosmetics for their Spartans and their weapons. Any progress that players make in Halo Infinite‘s multiplayer starting today will also be carried forward when the game officially releases on December 8.

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Season 1 of Halo Infinite will last from now until May 2022 and include in-game events with their own rewards. Notably, some of Halo Infinite‘s content is releasing in conjunction with its multiplayer seasons. Halo Infinite is launching without a Forge mode for creating custom maps and custom game modes. Similarly, the game won’t have co-op campaign at launch either. Campaign co-op will be introduced along with the game’s second season, meaning players will have to wait until after May 2022 to play through the game with a friend. Forge mode will be added in Halo Infinite’s third season, which doesn’t have a set start date.

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Players are already flooding the game on PC, where it’s slowly climbing the concurrent player chart on Steam. As of this writing, Halo Infinite has over 70,000 players, making it the 10th-most-played game on Steam.

Halo Infinite‘s free-to-play multiplayer beta is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Players will also be able to play Halo Infinite‘s multiplayer via Xbox Cloud Gaming later today.

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Otto Kratky
Otto Kratky
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…
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