To be completely honest, Bungie could walk away from Halo: Reach and never touch it again, and fans would remain perfectly happy. The game is receiving astonishingly high review scores, Reach has topped the Xbox Live charts for over a week now, and broken more records than we likely know about. Money in the bank, right? Lucky for us, the gentlemen at Bungie are a bit more professional than that, and have a sizable update coming out this October.

The big changes include the addition of campaign matchmaking, SWAT gaining its own playlist, and the addition of King of the Hill and Rocket Race variants. Check out the full list of notes here:

Playlist Changes

  • SWAT Playlist added (SWAT removed from Big Team Battle and Team Slayer)
  • Campaign Matchmaking (live on 10/15 — You will be required to have earned the Grade “Corporal” to enter this Playlist)
  • Team Slayer rebalanced to highlight default Slayer game variants and include new offerings
  • Classic Slayer removed
  • Removed “Pro” game variants from the Arena Playlist
  • Removed Boardwalk from Arena Team Doubles Playlist
  • Added “Return to Battlefield” volume to Space on Zealot in the Arena Playlist

Game Variants Additions

  • King of the Hill (multiple Playlists, including Arena*)
  • Rocket Race
  • Juggernaut (Rumble Pit Playlist)
  • *King of the Hill not included in Arena

General Housekeeping

  • Sudden Death will be added to all Assault game variants, including Invasion
  • Team Objective will now feature the map Powerhouse
  • Replacing Drop Shield with Evade for King of the Hill, Territories, and Oddball
  • Replacing Hologram with Evade in Oddball, Capture the Flag, Assault, and Stockpile
  • Replacing the Scorpion on Hemorrhage with Wraiths (Hemorrhage Heavies variant, TBD)

Bungie also mentions that these are not all of the updates they have planned, but just the ones that are inbound soon. They've got a lot of proposed updates, apparently, so just you wait. The other interesting note is that Bungie is watching user created content for high quality matchmaking hopefuls. Have a great idea and want to see Bungie make it into something official? Make a map and spread the word.

I know Bungie has always been really supportive post-release for their multiplayer content, but I'm doubly impressed by how quick they're jumping into the thick of things. People complaining about SWAT in the Team Slayer playlist? Bam, it's gone only a few weeks later. That's some turnaround, for sure.

Are there any notes in particular that interest you, Ranters? Are their any glaring omissions that you'd like to see Bungie deal with ASAP? Or are you perfectly content with the content readily available to you right now?

Halo: Reach is currently available on the Xbox 360.

Source: Bungie Weekly Update