This post is not meant to defend 343i or attack them, but bring up context as a discussion point for everything that’s happening.
There’s misinformation being spread around in terms of development for this game, mainly when Infinite began development. LinkedIn posts from 343i employees dictate that Halo Infinite’s actual development beyond concepting started in 2017, 2 years after Halo 5 released and just around the same time that Halo 5 ended full content oriented support. The Halo Infinite we saw at June 2020 E3 Presentation was a game that we saw that was developed for only 2 and a half to 3 years. Infinite was not in development for 6 years.
The E3 presentation and its reception was the final straw for 343i’s very shaky management to finally crumble. A lot of management positions were let off, people moved on from the project, and many of them were not happy about the state of the project at all. Joseph Staten was pleaded to come back as a last minute hope and he did, possibly doing a load of scrapping to now comply to the first initial delay, then the second, then the third. So many things feel like they’re cut? They probably were. Content so minimal? Most of Infinite’s development was probably focused on getting it to function to begin with since the state of the game really wasn’t good within those 2 and a half years. “That’s because of bad management and not circumstance.” You’re entirely correct , because Staten has directed Infinite for only one of its 4 years of development, having people constantly at each other’s throats lead the game up until that point.
The state of Infinite is a fairly big disappointment in terms of meta game, but the game itself is a very good and solid grounding. I wish there was a lot more on top of it, and I wish what was on top of it was fair to us as players. I do not like the idea of waiting another year for the game to truly flourish, but it’s happenstance. Having to make the game run well on Xbox One launch models must be a nightmare. Having to try to make the game run twice, let alone 4 times could be the ultimate reason for the game not launching with Co-op. Forge from the footage leaks really demonstrates an incredible mode, but it really did look unfinished in the end. I hope the year long delay for Forge allows it to be the best it can be.