343 Industries Tries To Reassure Fans That Halo Is In The Right Hands
Halo is arguably Microsoft’s biggest showpiece in terms of gaming. It effectively launched the original Xbox console back in 2001 and became one of the major gaming franchises with the release of Halo 2 in 2004. So when Microsoft and Halo developer 343 Industries announced that they were set to release a remastered compilation of all of Master Chief’s adventures for the Xbox One, fans were naturally delighted that they would get to play some of their favorite games on the console with upgraded graphics and audio.
Unfortunately for everyone, Halo: The Master Chief Collection wasn’t the brilliant game that it was supposed to be. Bugs and glitches plagued the game, while online multiplayer was almost entirely broken thanks to connectivity issues that prevented the vast majority of players from getting into games over Xbox Live. 343 Industries released several patches to try to fix these problems, and while most of them have been fixed some issues still persist. Microsoft tried to make amends to disappointed fans by releasing a brand new map alongside a fully remastered Halo 3: ODST last month for free, but many Xbox gamers felt that they could no longer trust 343 Industries to handle future Halo games.
Today the developer has tried to address this belief and has once again apologized for the mess that was the Master Chief Collection. Speaking to Game Informer studio boss Bonnie Ross said, “Going forward, you will never see a Halo game coming out without a beta. [Master Chief Collection] was obviously painful for our fans and for us. But it won’t happen again.”
“There is so much we learned with the Halo 5 beta. There is actually stuff we took from our Master Chief Collection — learnings that we were able to put into the [Halo 5: Guardians] beta.”
343 Industries undoubtedly still has a long way to go to convince long time Halo fans that they should be trusted with the franchise, though they do seem to be making all the right noises to get them back on side. Yesterday details emerged that all of the DLC maps for Halo 5: Guardians would release over Xbox Live for free. The studio also announced that an Xbox Live Gold account would not be necessary to play online co-op in Halo 5, allowing those with free accounts to experience the game with their friends.