Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Since the last time we spoke, Noble Team has joined Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One and PC. By putting these Spartans' boots on a solid PC foundation, we've officially kicked off our journey to bring the rest of the collection to Microsoft Store & Steam users throughout 2020. Even though this has been a long time in the making for us at the studio, we couldn't have done it without the help of Halo Insiders that participated in our flights this year.

For the holidays, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be paying out Double XP across all playlists and also be giving players a chance to unwrap the Ugly Sweater nameplate. If you want to qualify for this beloved nameplate, complete one of the steps below before January 6, 2020:

Complete (without quitting) 10 matchmaking (Multiplayer and/or Firefight) matches on snowy maps

Beat the par score on any two snowy campaign missions

To celebrate the launch of Halo: Reach on MCC and give a little gift back to the community, Horia built this special Noble Team wallpaper, which you can now see in-game as our new splash screen. Enjoy!

Click on the wallpaper above or on this link to get the 4K version!

state of the game

As with any Halo game, the launch is just the first step in a much larger journey. At the moment, our Publishing Team is hard at work investigating the common pieces of feedback we've received over the past two weeks. Our Senior Program Manager on MCC, Farn, has written up a blog of his own, which should be dropping tomorrow, to help shed some light on where we're at in the development process with many of these hot ticket items. Here's a small glimpse into what you can expect tomorrow!

Audio Issues: Work on this is in progress, our goal is to get this out ASAP.

Work on this is in progress, our goal is to get this out ASAP. Stuttering: This has been a hard one to lock down and we are still investigating. In the reports we’ve seen this can vary based on hardware specs, third-party software and potential networking issues on the players end. While we don't have a fix ETA currently, we are actively investigating this. In the meantime, please try disabling any third-party applications that are running in the background and see if it offers any improvement.

This has been a hard one to lock down and we are still investigating. In the reports we’ve seen this can vary based on hardware specs, third-party software and potential networking issues on the players end. While we don't have a fix ETA currently, we are actively investigating this. In the meantime, please try disabling any third-party applications that are running in the background and see if it offers any improvement. Screen Tearing/VSync: There have been some bugs fixes around this that will be in one of our upcoming patches and we will continue to address issues as they pop up.

There have been some bugs fixes around this that will be in one of our upcoming patches and we will continue to address issues as they pop up. Key Bindings: Work is in progress to support rebinding both text chat and push to talk.

Work is in progress to support rebinding both text chat and push to talk. Mouse Input: We have seen a small percentage of players reporting this as an issue, please continue to submit support tickets if you are experience input delay problems. This is an area of the game that we will continue to monitor and improve upon where we can. The patch we released this week does address an issue that should improve the input performance and experience for M+KB players. We’re eager to hear the community’s feedback, please let us know how this change feels for you.

We have seen a small percentage of players reporting this as an issue, please continue to submit support tickets if you are experience input delay problems. This is an area of the game that we will continue to monitor and improve upon where we can. View Model: We are currently working on allowing players to make changes along the X & Y axis. An initial implementation is in test and design review with our team.

We are currently working on allowing players to make changes along the X & Y axis. An initial implementation is in test and design review with our team. Crouch While Moving: We are currently testing a solution for this and will release it once we have sorted out any bugs and design issues. For now, this mechanic remains consistent with the original Xbox 360 implementation.

And a little bit further in the blog Farn will touch on how things are looking for the future Halo titles coming to PC, including Halo: CE.

We are currently in a pre-alpha phase and have been making good progress against many of the same features you see in Reach today. To list a few that are in progress and/or being tested:

M&K Support

FOV Support

Aspect Ratio Support

Customization: We are already integrating a 3D model with live color adjustments for HCE and are investigating what more can be done.

HUD Upres

VFR Support

Input Latency Reduction

PC Optimizations

If work continues its trajectory, we are looking good to start flights in January.

Again, this was just a tiny preview of what should be dropping tomorrow, so please keep an eye out for it here on Waypoint.

Recent updates

Yesterday we released a small update to Halo: The Master Chief Collection on both platforms which was in development prior to launch. As we'll talk about in tomorrow's larger MCC blog post, even though we're aware of many other post-launch community requests, most are still under investigation. To learn more about yesterday's update, please read the patch notes for PC and Xbox One!

Improvements to narration across the front-end interface for Xbox.

One of our top priorities is ensuring that Halo: Reach is accessible to as many players as possible. Yesterday's patch includes a few updates to further improve accessibility for the title.

Addressed a mechanic for mouse + keyboard players which improves precision of aiming when taking damage.

As part of our ongoing work to assess player feedback across controller and M+KB inputs, the team discovered a legacy mechanic from the original game that was contributing to negative sentiment regarding the feel and responsiveness of playing on M+KB. We have adjusted this mechanic and are interested in what the community thinks of this change. The team will continue to monitor player feedback around controller/M+KB input.

Additional small fixes:

Fixed an issue which prevented the sound effect for unlocking a season tier from playing.

A stat error has been fixed that was causing multiplayer kills in Halo: Reach to increase the deaths in your service record.

A new Halo: Reach themed splash screen has been added to celebrate the inclusion of Reach, our sixth title into Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Resolved an issue that could cause players to be kicked from a matchmade game when an intermittent loss of Xbox Live connectivity occurred.

Fixed an exploit where season items which were manually made available while Easy anti-cheat (EAC) was disabled and were able to equip them after launching on an EAC enabled exe.

This patch was also paired with a Playlist Update which made numerous community-requested changes to map and mode offerings in Social Matchmaking and fine-tuned the map weighting in some of the Halo: Reach Team Hardcore playlist. The patch notes for Xbox One & PC should include the nitty-gritty details if you're curious!

Halo Support

Our new Halo Support site (support.halowaypoint.com) and Twitter account (@HaloSupport) also launched earlier this month to assist players with any problems they may encounter with actively supported Halo titles. Our extensive library of Knowledge-Based Articles (KBAs) and known issues lists will help players find answers to their questions and provide solutions whenever possible. If you can't find the answer you're looking for, you should always feel free to submit a ticket on the site and our Support Site Monitors will assist you as soon as they can.

We're excited to have this new initiative off the ground and we hope you all take advantage of it!