343 reveals its ‘new way and place to play’ Halo: Master Chief Collection

343 Industries has confirmed that Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s ‘new way to play’ teased last week is an upcoming Custom Game Browser.

The long-awaited feature will be added via a public flight update as early as next week, 343 said, in addition to a brand new map for Halo 3 taken from Saber Interactive’s cancelled Halo Online. This is likely the “new place” referred to in last week’s post.

“In last week’s MCC Flighting & Development Update, we talked about some of the features players can expect,” 343 said in its latest dev updated. “If all goes well in Rings 1 and 2, we plan to roll out our next public flight as early as next Thursday, February 18.”

Contents are subject to change, but features 343 is hoping to include are:

• Custom Game Browser: a new way to play with each other in MCC
• Season 6 content
• A new map for Halo 3 from Halo Online
• FOV slider support for all Xbox One consoles
• FOV slider will no longer be locked when Xbox Series X|S devices are set to 120hz
• Double Keybindings
• Mouse & Keyboard support for consoles
• Advanced Audio options
• View Model Customization options

Those looking to get involved with the public flight should opt-in on aka.ms/HaloInsider and complete email verification, the company said.

Last month 343 Industries said it was committed to providing “at least” monthly updates on the progress of Halo Infinite.

In December the Xbox studio officially pushed Infinite’s release back to fall/autumn 2021 and shared new details via Joseph Staten, the Bungie veteran who took control of Infinite’s campaign development following its much-criticised reveal this summer.

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It was the first high-level update on the former Xbox Series X/S launch game since the summer. However, responding to fans on Reddit in January, community manager Brian Jarrard insisted the studio was engaging with fans as much as it could.

“Considering we went 12-month stretches of total darkness and our last update was on December 8, I don’t think there’s any cause to worry,” he wrote.

“We also confirmed our Fall release window in that update, so now it’s clear we have some runway ahead of us and some time to go. That said, we’re committed to at least monthly high level updates and the next ‘Inside Infinite’ is coming out this week!”