Well it has been a few days since the Xbox Media Briefing on June 9th at E3 2014. and not only did we get more details about Halo 5: Guardians during the conference, but 343 Industries have clarified and confirmed various pieces of information about the game prior to its Fall 2015 launch.

Halo 5: Guardians will have a public beta

During the Xbox Media Briefing, a trailer was shown for Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer – although it was a CGI, we got solid confirmation that in 2014 – Halo 5: Guardians will have a public multiplayer beta. 343 Industries confirmed later that starting December 27th, 2014, players will be able to take part in the beta which will last for FOUR WEEKS ending on January 22nd, 2015.

Players will be able to unlock exclusive content for the beta by playing Halo: The Master Chief Collection and watching Halo: Nightfall – these exclusive unlocks will carry over into Halo 5: Guardians later in 2015.

Halo 5: Guardians will NOT feature Armor Abilities

During the Halo 5: Guardians segment, one of the pieces of text said “All New Spartan Abilities”. Many were left annoyed and assumed that this meant Armor Abilities which were featured in both Halo: Reach and Halo 4 and hated hugely throughout the community. However, Frank O’ Connor – Franchise Development Director took to NeoGAF to confirm that this was not the case, and confirmed that Halo 5: Guardians would not feature Armor Abilities at all.

He clarified that Spartan Abilities meant new base player traits, using examples like Dual Wielding and Vehicle Boarding, both of which were introduced into Halo 2.

The New Spartan is called Agent Locke

During the Master Chief Collection trailer, you can hear Keith David (voice actor of The Arbiter) talking to the new Spartan and call him by the name of Agent Locke. While we don’t know what role Agent Locke is going to play (good or bad guy), we know that he’s being tasked with one mission – to find the Master Chief.

Halo 5: Guardians will have a ranking system

In a post on NeoGAF, Frank O’ Connor also confirmed that Halo 5: Guardians will have a ranking system, but said E3 wasn’t the place to showcase something like that.

While Frank did not clarify if the ranking system would be visible in-game like Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo: Reach or if it would be on Halo Waypoint like Competitive Skill Rank for Halo 4, we will be getting some sort of ranking system.

The game will have a competitive focus

Another piece of text from the Halo 5: Guardians Beta trailer said that the game would feature “Next Generation, Arena Multiplayer” which seems to be a massive step back to what Halo is meant to be compared to both Halo: Reach and Halo 4.

With the confirmation that Armor Abilities will not be returning, a ranking system and of course – 1080p, 60FPS and dedicated servers, competitive gaming is without a doubt going to have a strong focus leading up to launch and obviously the same for post-launch support.

Bradford Welch – Design Director at 343 Industries took to Twitter to clarify a few things:

Arena means what you'd expect – competitive focus, level playing field, map control. Spartan abilities are player mechanics not loadout AAs. — 𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚍 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚌𝚑 (@monkeybdubz) June 10, 2014

In case you missed it – be sure to check out the What We Know So Far: Halo 5: Guardians article which was created after the original Halo 5: Guardians announcement last month which offers tons more information about the game.

Finally, be sure to check out the TeamBeyond.net Forums to discuss all the latest Halo news, including Halo 5: Guardians and The Master Chief Collection.