343 Apologizes For ‘Halo: Master Chief Collection’ Launch

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is one of several recent big-name titles released this year to suffer the indignity of a launch marred by technical difficulties. Now, its developers have made an apology to disappointed fans — but will that be enough?

Intended as a way for 343 Industries to get into the good books of fans on Microsoft’s new game console, ahead of its launch The Master Chief Collection looked like a tantalizing prospect. Four full campaigns — including a revamped version of Halo 2 — as well as more than one hundred maps to enjoy in a comprehensive multiplayer experience seemed like the perfect release to remind players what they loved about the series.

However, when release day rolled around on November 11, things quickly began to unravel. A 15 GB launch day update still couldn’t make things ready for players, and reports of how difficult it was to enter a game via matchmaking soon spread across the internet.

Frustratingly, it soon became clear that the consensus on the game was very good. Its single player content — which was less affected by bugs than multiplayer — was widely praised, and it was clear that, if matchmaking worked correctly, then competitive modes would be similarly enjoyable. Except it’s been broken for two weeks on the multiplayer front.

To their credit, 343 Industries took a proactive approach to the issues, holding their hands up to the problems that players were having and committing themselves to finding solutions. The well-hyped eSports competition that was set to begin on November 16 was delayed, and all hands were put on deck to fix the broken release.

Today marks two weeks since the game was in players hands and, despite its developers best efforts, it’s still not the product that many consumers feel that they paid for. That’s what has prompted 343 Industries head Bonnie Ross to pen an apology to fans on Halo Waypoint, offering the following statement as part of it:

While our team works on continual improvements and towards solutions, my commitment to you is that we will take care of all owners of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Our primary and continued focus is first on fixing the issues at hand. Once we’ve done that, we will detail how we will make this right with our fans.

Exactly what Ross means by ‘make this right’ is unclear, but the studio will have a difficult job placating fans with any sort of peace offering. Consumers paid money for the product and the product is failing to deliver. The Master Chief Collection was supposed to be a slam dunk before the more difficult task of breaking new ground with Halo 5 next year — but, if anything, its release has only cast more aspersions on the future of the series.

As it stands, Halo is still the de facto flagship brand for the Xbox; however, the botched release of The Master Chief Collection has only served to put more pressure on the next mainline entry in the series to renew fan interest. The game itself will likely be fixed by a series of patches over the next few weeks — but the reputation of the franchise perhaps won’t be so easily mended.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available now for Xbox One.

Source: Halo Waypoint

343 Apologizes For ‘Halo: Master Chief Collection’ Launch