343 Industries unveils their newest free content for Halo 5 at The Game Awards, featuring a huge update on the game's creation suite alongside new premade maps.

Halo 5: Guardians' newest update will provide Forge mode, but with several quality of life improvements that should make the creation suite significantly easier and more intuitive for gamers to use. Although no new details on just how Forge is now different were announced, fans won't have to wait long to find out for themselves: Forge, alongside additional unrelated content, will be made available in the next free Halo 5 update sometime this month, which will be called "Cartographer's Gift".

343 Industries will also deliver some new maps for both Arena and Warzone, as well as a significant number of new REQ items that those willing to pay some microtransactional fees will be able to acquire soon. Although the addition of microstransactions to Halo 5 was initially met with some concern from long-time fans, those fears have been largely unfounded, as there are no real multiplayer benefits to be gained from the inclusion of paid multiplayer content.

It's no secret that the addition of Halo 5 to the Xbox One games lineup has been a huge boon to Microsoft's current-gen console. After months of lagging behind its competitor, the Xbox One outsold the PS4 in October, thanks largely in part to the release of Halo 5, which gave many fans on the fence about the newest consoles a very good reason to go with Microsoft's offering.

In fact, the release of Halo 5 has seemingly breathed new life into Xbox One sales and opinions alike. The game is arguably the best reason to own a Xbox One this season, and 343 Industries has also made it a priority to support the fledgling Halo 5 tournament scene in a big way. Although it was previously announced that the Halo 5 World Championship would feature a 1.5 million USD prize pool, 343 Industries announced at The Game Awards tonight that the total has since increased to a cool 2 million.

With the announcement of the Cartographer's Gift update, 343 Industries has made good on their promise to continously support Halo 5 after its release in a way that is accessible to all the gamers who play it. It's the same kind of DLC strategy that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt employed on its way to winning the 2015 Game of the Year award, so 343 Industries can consider themselves in good company.

What's your opinion of Halo 5's current update schedule and content? Are you planning to use Forge, or do you leave the creation suite to the truly dedicated map enthusiasts? Let us know in the comments.

Halo 5: Guardians is available now for Xbox One.

Source: Twitter