A massive update is arriving next week in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, exactly one week after the launch of the new Xbox Series consoles.
The Tuesday, November 17, patch will introduce crossplay between PC and console players — starting with both multiplayer and Firefight modes. Campaign cross-play could still come as part of a later update, judging by how carefully 343 has worded things in the last month or two.
The update also introduces input-based matchmaking, which means you can choose whether to play against controllers only, keyboard-and-mouse players only, or various other options, depending on the playlist.
Halo: MCC will be optimized for Xbox Series consoles as of Tuesday, as well.
Producer Michael Fahrney says that we can expect to see draw distances increased, a field-of-view slider on newer consoles (with Xbox One FOV support a possibility for later), “extremely fast loading times,” and 120 frames per second across campaign and multiplayer.
Halo 4 on PC is the big headlining event behind all these changes, however, and it sounds like it’ll be worth revisiting yet again on PC and Series X/S. It “looks, feels, and plays amazing,” Fahrney says. “It’s like a whole new game across the board.”