In what could almost be a parody of modern mainstream gaming, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, now on shelves for almost three months, still does not work properly. Patch after patch has tried to set things right, with varying degrees of success, but now a substantial new update promises to correct the online-play errors once and for all.
343 Industries, the current developer behind the Halo series, revealed information about its upcoming patch on the Halo Waypoint blog. The post promises "fundamental changes" to the Xbox One game's matchmaking search time, match search success and lobby/party functionality, all of which have contributed to a general air of difficulty when players attempt to play the game online with strangers.
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The patch will come out sometime in February, although 343 was not more specific than that. The changes are so sweeping, it said, that the patch might require beta testing from current Halo players. Although the company did not specify the update's size, it did promise that the fix will contain the "biggest changes to the Matchmaking system yet."
Players may also be interested to know that a number of updates are in the works for the Master Chief Collection playlists functionality, as well as the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta. There's nothing too exciting to report here, except that both programs will continue to expand and try to accommodate features that players have been requesting, such as Team Doubles for the Master Chief Collection's multiplayer.
In the meantime, 343 encourages fans to continue submitting reports of game malfunctions via the Halo Waypoint, Reddit, Twitter and other Halo hotspots online. Fans have every right to be skeptical of the new patch's purported efficacy, but maybe this will really be the one that gets the game up to working specs.
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Marshall Honorof is a Staff Writer for Tom's Guide. Contact him at mhonorof@tomsguide.com. Follow him @marshallhonorof. Follow us @tomsguide, on Facebook and on Google+.
