In the most recent blog post on Halo Waypoint, 343 Industries’ franchise community manager, Andy Dudynsky / Bravo answered some fan questions about Halo: The Master Chief Collection. As you may already have seen, we have an article on everything you should know about Halo: The Master Chief Collection. But, with this blog post, we have even more information on The Master Chief Collection, mainly information on the multiplayer portion.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection releases 11/11/2014 for the Xbox One.
To begin, they have reassured the community that The Master Chief Collection will not be on Xbox 360.
Q: Could the collection be developed on Xbox 360?
-xXLJSpartacusXx
A: We are dedicated to bringing a full and fun experience to Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One, providing you with dedicated servers, a unified interface, increased visual fidelity, and gameplay running at 60 fps. We do not have any plans to bring the game to Xbox 360 as the game size, enhanced features and technical specifications simply can’t support it.
So, to anyone holding out that The Master Chief Collection would come to the Xbox 360, looks like you’ll have to get an Xbox One.
And now, for the major points the post talked about. The majority of these is about the multiplayer portion of The Master Chief Collection. For the full Q&A, simply go to the blog post. But we will cover the highlights below!
To start, Halo 2 anniversary, the “crown jewel” of The Master Chief Collection, will have dedicated playlists, containing only Halo 2 maps and gamemodes.
Q: What about the new H2A engine for multiplayer? Will the Anniversary maps be included in the Halo 2 rotation?
-The Little Moa
A: Halo 2 Anniversary (with gameplay on the six reimagined Halo 2 maps) will have dedicated experiences in Matchmaking at launch. We’ll have more to share on playlist specifics later this summer.
Bravo then talked about the control schemes, and how they will work.
Q: Can you clarify what’s going on with control schemes?
-The Little Moa
A: We are currently finalizing control schemes, but we can say that we’ll have universal schemes that work across all games, as well as dedicated control schemes for each game. If you loved Halo 2’s default scheme but play Bumper Jumper in Halo 3, you’ll be able to use these for each corresponding title.
He went on to assure us that Halo 2 multiplayer “will feel the way you remember it.”
Q: What version of Halo 2 will be included? Is it “pre-patch multiplayer?”
-WulfwoodsSins
A: We are making huge investments to deliver a premium experience at 1080p, 60 fps. Having said that, the original game had a lot of dependencies running at 30 fps so we are focusing on making sure Halo 2 plays the way it did “post-patch.” Gameplay will feel the way you remember it.
Each game will also have it’s own dedicated playlist, allowing you to play just Halo 3 multiplayer, as well as the multiplayer of Halo 1, 2, and 3.
Q: How exactly does matchmaking work? Will there be a filter or something that allows me to play just Halo 2 matchmaking? And so on for the other games.
-GNRL PATTEN
A: We’ll have more to share on Matchmaking at a later date, but we can say that we’ll have playlists that offer multiple games, as well as dedicated experiences for separate games.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been in development “prior to releasing Halo 4.”
Q: How long has The Master Chief Collection been in development?
-TeK x Fernplant
A: We started thinking about exactly how we were going to debut on Xbox One several years ago, prior to releasing Halo 4.
The Master Chief Collection will not have Join-in-Progress.
Q: Is there going to be Join-in-Progress for any of the games?
-Death31133
A: Halo: The Master Chief Collection Matchmaking will not feature Join-in-Progress.
343i is only focusing on The Master Chief Collection for Xbox One at this point in time.
Q: Will there be a PC version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection at some point in the future?
-Beats By Die
A: Our current focus is on the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One.
No stats will be carrying over for The Master Chief Collection.
Q: Will stats from the previous games (i.e., Rank, Armor, Commendations, K/D etc) carry over to the new titles?
-BaconShelf
A: Players will be starting fresh in terms of rank, stats, armor, and more on Xbox One. We’ll have more specifics at a later date.
We will be seeing more of the game at Gamescom in August.
Q: When will we see more multiplayer gameplay for Halo 2? Also more of the re-imagined maps?
-kkohler22
A: We’ll have lots more multiplayer before launch. Keep an eye out during Gamescom in August!
Elites will be playable again! (wort wort wort)
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Q: Can I play as an Elite? Wort wort wort!
-random king007
A: As mentioned at the Xbox Press Briefing, playable Elites are back! Halo 2, Halo 2: Anniversary, and Halo 3 multiplayer will all feature the return of playable Elites.
343i will be having community events.
Q: Would you guys consider doing community events where you play with the community?
-About1337Mouses
A: Absolutely! We’ll certainly be organizing community playdates, and most of us will be online every day this fall! Seriously.
And that’s it for the highlights! What do you guys think about the revealed info? What is most exciting to you? Are you glad that we will once again have wort wort wort? Leave your thoughts below! And remember, stay tuned to Gamer Headlines for all of your Halo and Gaming news!