With just over three weeks until the launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Executive Producer Dan Ayoub of 343 Industries has officially announced that the game has officially gone gold.
Now that development is complete, fans will be glad to know that they can both digitally pre-order and pre-download Halo: The Master Chief Collection straight from the Xbox One’s Game Store later today.
Responding to fan feedback about the three-day release delay between North America and Europe, Ayoub said, “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!”
This is great news for the global audience as it now allows for a majority of the community to play both the single-player campaigns and online multiplayer simultaneously.
Ayoub went on further to say, “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.”
As we all know by now, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is massive. It features all four single-player campaigns of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4, as well as their complete multiplayer experiences with every map ever released including all the downloadable content maps and PC exclusive maps. Celebrating the ten year anniversary of Halo 2, its campaign has received the full anniversary treatment, with remastered audio and graphics and completely overhauled CGI cutscene from Blur Studios. In addition to all this, six of the many Halo 2 multiplayer maps have also been remastered, featuring new environmental interactions and set pieces.
Given the size and scope of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Dan Ayoub has also announced plans for a day-one content update. In order to ensure a unified experience off a single disc, Ayoub explained, “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.”
Like all Xbox One games, you’ll be able to start the single-player campaign as the game is installing and the content update is being applied. Other game content, such as online multiplayer, will be accessible once the base installation and content update have been completed.
Ayoub reassured fans, “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.”
As a final note, Halo 4’s Spartan Ops, which is to be included with the collection, will now be released in December, rather than being available at launch.
While many may not necessarily be displeased with the delay since there’s so much other content to experience, Ayoub reasoned, “…we’re making some technical enhancements to [Spartan Ops] 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.”
Halo: The Master Chief Collection will arrive exclusively for Xbox One on November 11th.
