Hey there Halo fans!

It’s been a long, crazy, exciting road, and we’re finally

getting close to launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection in November. I wanted to personally share some big status

updates with you. Let’s start with the biggest:

Halo: The Master Chief Collection has gone GOLD!

This is a massive milestone for the team and also means that the game is available for Pre-Order and Pre-Download right now!. I couldn’t be more excited to start having

fans grab this game online so everyone can hit the ground running on release

day! The team has been working incredibly hard to make this happen, so we’re

all eager for you to play this labor of love.

One of the questions we get asked most is about worldwide

release plans. The reality of worldwide

sales and retail processes always makes simultaneous launches challenging. Some fans expressed disappointment in our

original planned release date of November 11 in North America and November 14

in several other territories around the world. We heard you loud and clear, and

I am happy to announce that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be released

on November 11 for the majority of our fans around world!

There are still a few countries that will see a slight delay

due to public holidays. In Europe, Belgium will release on November 12 and

France will release on November 14 as part of their typical Friday release

schedule. Our fans in Japan will see a

release of November 13. Given the social

aspects of the experience, we were really happy to get it as close to a simultaneous

worldwide release as possible so that we can all celebrate on November 11 and

start playing together.



This is literally going to be the biggest Halo experience so

far

That is to say, the sheer size and scope of the content. To

recap, Halo: The Master Chief Collection contains four complete Halo games,

every multiplayer map ever released (including DLC from console and PC) across

each game, a complete remaster of Halo 2 with all-new audio and Blur’s

mind-blowing cinematics, and all of this is tied together with (and enhanced

by) a revolutionary user interface.

From the start, our philosophy has been to give Halo fans

the best possible experience and not compromise the quality or features of the

collection. The result is that Halo: The

Master Chief Collection will take up almost all of the usable space of a single

Blu-ray (45 GB), and we will also issue a content update at launch that is

estimated to be 20 GB. You’ll be able to

start playing Campaign and more as the content is installing, with some

features and multiplayer content being added via the update. Yes, the update is

large, but we weren’t about to cut corners to save disc space. This ensures that you are getting every bit

of Halo goodness we can fit in. Our work

is not done, however, as we continue to tune, tweak and optimize the online

experience to ensure a smooth multiplayer launch. This will continue right up until launch day.



One caveat we wanted to share is that Spartan Ops, our

episodic co-op experience from Halo 4, will now release in December. In the meantime, we’re making some technical

enhancements to that experience to make sure it’s smoother and even better than

before. All ten episodes will be available at the same time, so we’re working

to make an event out of it with our Community teams.

26 more sleeps!

Lastly, I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to you, our

fans. Development of a game is always hard, but Halo: The Master Chief

Collection has been the most challenging of my career. No team has really

attempted a project like this, and the number of moving pieces has been

staggering. The development team at 343 Industries has been working hard

alongside our partners to make this happen and, at every step, you have been

there for us. Whether it’s with encouraging words at events, or via messages on

Twitter, I can tell you that your feedback is crucial and fuels our drive to

make Halo: The Master Chief Collection the best it can be.

I’d like to thank you all for your continued enthusiasm,

excitement and support for this game. See you on Xbox Live!

-Dan