Halo Master Chief Collection Patch Causes Bugs

It's been a less than ideal launch for Microsoft's Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Poised to be the biggest reason to get an Xbox One this Holiday season, the high-definition compilation has been plagued by severe online connection issues that have prevented many fans from making use of the matchmaking feature. Updates have been rolling out as of late, but so far the problems haven't been fully addressed.

The studio behind Halo: The Master Chief Collection, 343 Industries, has been hard at work trying to cure all of the ailments gamers are currently experiencing, but the latest patch appears to have done more harm than good.

Taking to Halo Waypoint, the Forum Team talked in detail about the results of the latest content update. While the team admitted that things were improved from a statistical standpoint, the update has created new bugs that are now being worked on by Microsoft and its crew in a continuous effort to give consumers a quality experience while shooting at friends/foes online.

"Our data shows that the CU improved things statistically, but we are aware that far too many are not seeing improvements. We continue to work on these issues, with our primary focus being on matchmaking performance. Additionally, we also noticed that the CU inadvertently introduced some new UI bugs, which will be fixed shortly."

"For now, you will continue to see uneven match-ups and larger than normal team sizes in matchmaking. This is a temporary situation that is caused by the fact that we are allowing more players than normal into a matchmaking session in order to improve overall matching times. We realize this is not ideal, and we will reset those parameters to their expected behavior as soon as our matchmaking improves to a level where players are consistently getting into matches in shorter time frames."

Halo Matchmaking Fix Finally Releases

Another bug that 343 Industries touched on during its update is the splitting up of parties following a matchmaking session. In a bid to reassure disgruntled fans, the dev team confirmed that that particular issue will be fixed in future updates – although a particular date and time have yet to be announced.

"Additionally, in yesterday’s patch notes, we announced that parties would no longer be split after a matchmaking session, and we’re aware that this bug has regressed. This issue, along with others, will be addressed in the coming content updates. We’ll be monitoring feedback and data over the weekend, and will provide an update on Monday regarding our progress."

These issues coincide with a large number of other games that have been struggling with even worse problems. Games like Assassin's Creed Unity, LittleBigPlanet 3 and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric have proven to be prime examples of companies shipping games before they're ready, and the wait for fixes down the road has proven to be incredibly frustrating for consumers.

Halo's multiplayer functionality will be fixed eventually, but in the meantime there is still an absurd amount of content on-disc for fans to tear through. Four games starring Master Chief are available, including a completely remastered version of Halo 2, can be played in the collection and they're still very playable – albeit plagued with a couple of co-op issues. Still, the sooner 343 Industries can get The Master Chief Collection's multiplayer up and running the better.

___

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is currently available exclusively for the Xbox One.

Follow Riley on Twitter @TheRileyLittle for more news on Halo, as well as everything else in gaming.

Source: 343 Industries