The improvements made to Halo: The Master Chief Collection over the past year have been substantial. Bringing the bundle to PC has led to an in-depth overhaul of many aspects of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Now, with all games available on PC, 343 Industries is getting more experimental. It's focusing on adding Seasonal content, but also starting to experiment with new maps. However, these things take time, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection's next maps are being caught up in a delay.
The developer announced a week ago that it was planning to start testing for a new map this upcoming week. The map was described as a Halo Online map that would be used in Halo 3's multiplayer. Those plans have changed, as 343 says it has encountered a handful of bugs big enough that the previously planned public test can't go forward. As a result, the test flight has been pushed to later next week, as early as February 25.
It's not all bad news from 343. While the public test flight has been delayed, 343 is going to take the opportunity to add something to the mix. Now there won't be just one map available to try in the public testing, but two. The developer says Halo Online's Edge and Waterfall maps will both be in Halo 3 when the test goes live. That's in addition to Season 6's content, FOV sliders on Xbox One, and various other additions.
For those unfamiliar, Halo Online was a canceled project intended to release in Russia. Halo Online was a free-to-play, online-only experience based on Halo 3, so it could run on lower-end PCs to reach a wider market. It would have basically been a live service game for Russia, where such things are very successful. The project ended up scrapped, but several unused maps have been waiting for 343 to repurpose and rerelease them.
While a new map addition is exciting for the upcoming Halo: The Master Chief Collection test flight, another planned addition has been delayed further. The highly anticipated custom games browser is being split off from the next test flight. It's likely the source of the bugs, so 343 needs to put some extra work into it. The developer says it'll need at least a couple of extra weeks to work things out.
With these planned additions, 343 Industries shows that even after finishing the PC port of Halo: The Master Chief Collection it has no intent to slow its support. Seasonal content, additional maps, and new functionality like the custom game browser are great examples of 343's efforts. At the very least, it should hopefully make the wait for Halo Infinite more tolerable.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Halo Waypoint