UPDATE: Bravo has posted a small update on our forums regarding many fans’ disappointment that only one playlist will have ranks.

Hey all, Understand the frustration, and apologies that these details are coming unacceptably late. The selection to start with a ranked H2A playlists is not at all an effort to “force” H2A, but instead begin the focus with H2A, as we’ve stated – it’s the newest experience in the box, and several Matchmaking playlists are H2A focused (such as Rumble Pit). In the same way that H2A Rumble Pit will eventually become a larger Rumble Pit playlists, our goal is to expand the # of ranked playlists across nearly all lists. Aside from “as soon as possible,” we don’t have a shareable timeline for this just yet (as part of this will be determined by which updates might need to be made to the system itself within the first few weeks), but I will continue to provide as much detail as possible. Please continue to send over questions and I’ll address what I can. Thanks all.

ORIGINAL: The final bulletin before the launch of the Master Chief Collection has been released, and it is stocked with tons of information regarding the game. Bravo and the Halo Bulletin team released a ton of information regarding Skulls and Campaign playlists in the Master Chief Collection, and also touched on the topic of the Master Chief Collection ranked playlists.

Bravo explained that because this is the first time a ranking system will span across multiple Halo games, that the system will be fine tuned after the game releases on November 11th. One of the playlists (Team Halo 2: Anniversary), will launch with ranks, whereas others will come in future updates. Here is the official statement by the team:

This is the first time we’ve built a Matchmaking and ranking system that will work across multiple games, and as a result, we’ll be rolling out ranking for each playlist post-launch, and will launch with one ranked playlist, Team Halo 2: Anniversary. As time goes on, we’ll be rolling out the official ranked version for each ranked playlist.

In addition, they made it clear that there is still a skill-based matchmaking system in the background for all playlists, meaning that matches will still consist of players on an equal skill level.

For example, the Halo 3 and Halo 4 playlists will not be ranked immediately at launch (however, they will still have skill matchmaking underneath to ensure balanced matches), but will each receive ranked play post-launch. As this is a new system custom built for this game, we do expect some players to make every effort to exploit the system, and will be agile in issuing fixes and updates. Additionally, if needed, we will reset ranks after launch to ensure that all player’s ranks are fair, consistent, and accurate. We’ll provide more details on ranking and the playlist ranking rollout in the near future.

This may come as a shock to some fans of competitive Halo, as you may realize that the eSports and Hardcore playlists will not have ranks enabled for the Master Chief Collection’s launch, however 343 will most likely be introducing them soon after. You can see a full list of all of the Master Chief Collection launch playlists here.

What do you think about this news? Discuss the Master Chief Collection on our forums!