Halo fans were excited beyond all belief when Halo: The Master Chief Collection was announced. Seeing their favorite games bundled up and brought to life once again in high-definition was a dream come true.
Unfortunately, The Master Chief Collection was plagued by issues that had the game's executive producer apologizing, that had Microsoft's Phil Spencer apologizing and even had the head of 343 Industries (and founder) Bonnie Ross apologizing. There were countless promises for updates addressing the problems, but never completely solving them.
Simply put, the game's multiplayer was a mess. Halo's Development Director at 343 Industries, Frank O'Connor has come out and admitted that the game was a disaster. Speaking to Xbox Achievements, O'Connor revealed that the game's issues are a "black eye" for the company and that Halo 5 will not fall into the same conundrum as it's being developed by a "completely different team."
“Halo: The Master Chief Collection is definitely a black eye for us,” says O’Connor. “We’re not going to rest on our laurels or hide from the mistakes we made. However, I will say that the nature of The Master Chief Collection – you’ve got five different game engines, you’ve got five different studios working on it, you’ve got 343 working on putting it all together – the footprint and complexity was outrageous.
“To be perfectly honest, there were a lot of things that happened when we got it into a retail environment that we simply didn’t see in a test environment, so that’s what really caught us by surprise. We’ve been sort of scrambling to get it first in a playable stage and now we’re going to get it in a polished stage, so that people are getting what they deserved in the first place. We’re never going to back away from that or shy away from that.
“However, Halo 5 is being made by a completely different team. It’s a singular product. It was built from the ground up for this new technology, rather than being sort of dragged kicking and screaming from 2001 and forced and shoehorned into a 2014 console. So the problem spaces are still very challenging but they’re radically different. I think the beta is already a decent first step, in a retail environment, showing that we don’t have the same problems.”
If you have been worried about Halo 5 because of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, you might be able to breathe a sigh of relief.
