Earlier this week, 343 Industries confirmed that split-screen local co-op in Halo Infinite has been cancelled outright – so players are now doing it themselves.

“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 at the time, dashing the hopes of players who’d been patiently waiting to couch co-op the campaign with pals.

Now, however, it seems that players have found a menu glitch that permits them to add up to three additional local co-op players to their system; all you need is an Xbox Series S or X and a pal online, and this helpful walkthrough.

As is usually the case with these things there’s no guarantee 343i won’t patch it and/or your Xbox may blow up, but if you still want to try, here’s a tutorial by @HaloCreation, courtesy of @Zeny_IC:

1. Go to the campaign menu and load a save
2. Click “Play” and get ready to quickly go to your friend list
3. As soon as “loading map” appears, go to your friend list and join a friend who’s idling in the menus
4. You can then leave the fireteam
5. In the custom lobby, under server, select “Offline”
6. You can now connect your other controllers and profiles
7. Click “Play”.

“After checking on Series X, the menu glitches to play Halo Infinite campaign splitscreen still work: no crash in cutscenes, no issue with AIs, etc.,” confirms Halo Creation, who says the workaround supports four players and doesn’t seem to break cutscenes. “Never thought I would have to go through this to play with friends at home.”

343 Industries also recently shared in its latest development roadmap that the game’s next season has been delayed to March 2023, too.