Halo 5 will need Xbox Live Gold for co-op, 343 Industries says

Online co-operative play in Halo 5: Guardians' campaign mode will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription, 343 Industries said today, correcting earlier statements that the paid service was not necessary for that mode.

"I misspoke during the [Game Informer] interview when stating that online co-op campaign would be supported with an Xbox Live Silver account," Josh Holmes, 343 executive producer, said in this blog post. "Co-op campaign will require Xbox Live Gold to play."

Holmes apologized for the misstatement, but added that "it is important to us that fans have the opportunity to play the full co-op campaign experience and we are doing this by providing a 14-day Xbox Live Gold trial with Halo 5: Guardians."

Taken together, it implies that two weeks should be plenty of time to make a full play-through of the campaign with friends, even if you don't pay for Xbox Live Gold. But longer-term online co-op play in campaign mode will need a subscription, which costs $59.99 annually.

Much more is expected on Halo 5: Guardians, due to launch Oct. 27 exclusively on Xbox One, at E3 2015 next week.