As leaked prior to the event, 343 Industries went on-stage during the X019 convention's opening ceremony and shared new information about Halo: Reach and Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The leak wasn't wholly correct, however, as Halo: Reach isn't launching on Xbox One today. Instead, Halo: Reach will be launching on both PC and Xbox One at the same time. Today's big announcement is that Halo: Reach is less than 3 weeks away and will launch on December 3.
It was previously announced that Halo: Reach will be coming to Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One free of charge and that still remains the plan. Previous owners of Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Game Pass owners will gain instant access to the game when it arrives December 3 without additional charge. For PC owners, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be released game by game, starting with Halo: Reach on December 3. The rest of the games in the collection will arrive later.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been available on Xbox One for over 5 years now, which in retrospect is a lot longer than it may have otherwise seemed. The package includes 5 Halo games, with Halo: Reach bringing the total up to 6. The games included are Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, the Halo: ODST campaign, and Halo 4. With Halo: Reach's addition, the only game that will be missing is Halo 5: Guardians.
What's really exciting about the PC rollout of Halo: The Master Chief Collection is it gives players the opportunity to experience the full franchise in chronological order. Halo: Reach, being a prequel, will start the series off. Then the remaining games will be released in 2020 one by one, with Halo: Combat Evolved reportedly starting it off and Halo 4 ending it.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC and the release of Halo: Reach on Xbox One are arriving just in time to scratch the itch left by anticipation for Halo Infinite. Halo Infinite, the next major release in the Halo franchise, is expected to arrive holiday 2019. That means 343 Industries and Xbox can roll out the games in the Halo: The Master Chief Collection throughout 2020, leading right up to the release of Halo Infinite. The Halo hype train is only just beginning.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available now on Xbox One and starts rolling out December 3 on PC.