Microsoft to blame for 343 Industries problems with Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One?

Leaked SDK documents have revealed that Microsoft is set to unveil a new matchmaking and party system in 2015 for the Xbox One. Could these updates be related to the current string of issues surrounding multiplayer in Halo: Master Chief Collection?

[Jackhass]

Well, Microsoft is to blame for releasing the broken game in the end.

[Vandamme21]

What about Halo ODLC

[Gazondaily]

Both are equally at fault imo. You just don't make such a gigantic blunder with such an important franchise. It's unforgivable.

Mind you, I'm excited to see what this new matchmaking and party system is all about.

[SilentNegotiator]

Considering that 343 is owned by Microsoft...why are we trying to differentiate whose fault it is?

[Docknoss]

How about Microsoft take a 3 to 4 year hiatus from Halo for a bit after Halo 5.

[Illusive_Man]

No thanks. The lore is too deep. There will be a Halo 5, 6, 7.

Probably another ODST.

Probably a Forerunner prequel.

People don't get that Halo is a scifi universe not unlike Star Wars.

There are enough stories for 30 years according to Bonnie Ross. I wouldn't doubt it would be even longer honestly.

[SilentNegotiator]

@Illusive_Man
"not unlike Star Wars", eh?
Sounds like you're ready for:

Halo: Flood Menace
Halo: Master Chief Wars
Halo: Revenge of the Brutes

[rainslacker]

Ultimately, it is the publisher who is to blame for actually releasing a broken game...and this is true in all non-self-published games. If a dev makes a game that's broken, then that's on them, but if the publisher sells a broken game for profit, then that's on the publisher. If a publisher doesn't give the time necessary to let a developer finish a game, or find another dev if the original isn't capable, then that's the publishers fault.

[lonelyplayer]

I'm wondering... is it still broken?

[annoyedgamer]

As of last week it was still booting me out after 1 game. Have not wasted any of my time this week though.

[truewittness]

After a month from the release, the matching making worked fine in everyway because of the 3 updates.

[Yetter]

Since Halo5 beta I havent tried it but I've been playing it all the time since release and its been progressively getting better but there are still a handful of bugs that are really frustrating

[slappy508]

Still not been able to find a single match, the P2P system of matchmaking just isnt working in this country, it probably works fine for most users in the US, so I hope they do find a new system where everyone who paid for this game will be able to enjoy the multiplayer as well

[pompombrum]

Seems hit and miss, I'm absolutely fine playing from my house but when I went over to my mum's for Christmas, I was getting constant lag spikes while ingame which only seemed to effect MCC. Matchmaking times has definitely improved a lot though.

[SUCKxITxEZ]

Oddly enough the Big Team Battle playlist has the least issues in my opinion, in fact, my first working match was a big team battle game back on launch day, when it was really broken. It's still frustratingly broken at times, but sometimes it tricks you into thinking it's fixed.

[BlissSeeker]

I get booted constantly and it can take the best of 20 minutes to find a game (mainly BTB).
Plus H2A has hit detection issues and lag when you throw a grenade. Come to think of its they all do most of the time with the exception of Halo: CE.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

I'm confused.

So MS has a previewed a matchmaking/ party system within Halo MCC that's said to release this year?

Well that sounds like MS fault. They're the ones releasing unfinished firmwares on a game that's super popular.

Whatever Matchmaking and Party system MS finalizes this year better be worth it.

[HaydenJameSmith]

If they were using this unfinished firmware to actually make MCC matchmaking better then the best idea would have probably been to delay the game until they could get the whole new matchmaking system working on their network infrastructure.

[The Great Melon]

While that would have been best, Microsoft couldn't afford to delay the one game that would be most likely to pull in users to its platform during the holidays.

[-Foxtrot]

If true (IF)...then it seems like Microsoft may have rushed it to try and boost Xbox One sales as fast as they could.

Although with them having Sunset Overdrive they could of released Halo near to The Order or Bloodborne to try and counter those games. So it wouldn't of been a huge loss if they delayed it

[XiMasterChief]

FPS usally sell on Holidays, and their competition is CallofDuty/others.

[-Foxtrot]

Yeah but COD is something they are behind in terms of advertising and the what not.

Why go head to head with that

[XiMasterChief]

I don't know. Your question can be applied for every game. Why did AW release in November? They could've went head to head with BFH in March (BFH release).

[miyamoto]

No other way to put it.

[Qrphe]

What's worrying is that now MS is pressuring 343 to maintain MCC AND develop Halo 5 at the same time, which is to release this year.

[KiwiViper85]

Separate teams.

[Qrphe]

Of course there would be separate teams if you have brake down your main team for emergencies

[rainslacker]

such is the holiday season. Gotta love it huh?

[mhunterjr]

Man this is a bunch of baseless speculation...

[Bigpappy]

That is all that came to mind for me. What gets me is how so many here lap this stuff up without giving it any thought.

[Godmars290]

The exact same way one group laps up bad news if its about another group's game system? This is nothing new.

[mhunterjr]

@godmars

But this isn't news...its speculation.

[Femto]

well well well..

[pelida]

I think reality is much simpler; we don't need big conspiracy theories: Every single game released by 343 sucked! They are not good developers, they have the money but no bloody talent.
It would be a shock to see Halo 5 turns to be good... Call of Halo, mark my words.
Even with Destiny (the lord knows the game has some issues) Bungie kicks 343 arse...

[Dudebro90]

Yea because halo reach was universally loved...

[pelida]

Hey I'm not saying every game by Bungie is perfect, nobody is perfect but I can name some VERY GOOD games made by Bungie and I'll say it gain: every single game made by 343 sucked monkey arse!
They have the money, they deliver a polished AAA, but 343 dont have the talent, don't have the soul...there are some things money cant buy

[4logpc]

You do know a lot of 343 is made up of former Bungie employees right?

[1nsaint]

^ I believe only around 10 employees working for 343i came from Bungie if i remember right.

Also Bungie went from about 120 employees to around 500.
And a lot of those 120 former employees went their own way. (some are now working for Bioware or Naughty Dog)

So i think it's safe to say that only 20% are former Bungie employees.

[Ginesis]

343 has only truely made one game so far and thats Halo 4. HMCC was outsourced, so technically it wasn't made by them. They've made one game and that one game was pretty good.

[OpieWinston]

No bloody talent... I don't think you watched the Halo 4 Vidocs or the recent "Sprint" vidocs because they've got A LOT of talent. Spanning from many different studios.

Every single game released by them? They've released...
Halo CE Anniversary/Halo 4/Halo Spartan Assault/Halo: Master Chief Collection.

I seriously hope you're trolling because 343 Industries is a great studio and the reason for MCC bumps is that it's 5 engines being run through a matchmaking system on dedicated servers. Not really been done before for one game using the same servers and UI/Matchmaking system.

Call of Halo? You're obviously trolling... And Bungie kicking 343 ass? Look at Destiny, Bungies talent is gone.
Heart of their music? Marty...Gone
Lead Writer/Design Director? Joseph Staten... Gone
Lead MP Designer for Halo 2/3? Max Hoberman....Gone

What made Halo great isn't at Bungie anymore... Wake up. Reach wasn't that good.

[pelida]

Ok dude we clearly have very different opinions. I wasnt tryng to upset you (trolling) hope you enjoy 343s Halo 5... You seem to be a 343 fan (and thats cool I cant understand why, but thats cool); on the other hand I am a classic Halo fan. I dislike what 343 has been doing with the series but w/e

[Hozi89]

Why can't everyone appreciate every game in the Halo series? I personally enjoyed them all.

[2pacalypsenow]

The power of the cloud

[Dudebro90]

Grasping at straws much?

[ThePR0tector]

Halo MCC is an awesome package, glitchy or not. We just had Christmas break, and I'm confident we'll see more updates rolling out soon. I find it sad how quickly we get excited when we see a game or in this case collection get announced, that pushes new features and content just to whine and complain when there's glitches and bugs. It would be one thing if the game was as halfbaked as AC Unity or if 343i hadn't apologized as many times as they did, and even give us another game and other content. But still we have this need to demonize 343 and Microsoft for any inconvenience we have with it. Last time I played MCC I had no issues in matchmaking at all, maybe some of you have closed or strict NAT to blame for your issues. Lately I've been playing the Halo 5 beta and find it to be extremely promising.

[Yetter]

This likely has to do with the smartmatch feature they've promised us since launch. I should be able to look for a game with smartglass or some sort of smartmatch hub without launching the game and then get a notification when my game is ready.

[dkp23]

IMO, i think there is an issue with the xbox one system, i play madden in an online league and there are so many issues of not being able to connect and invites not even registering. ANnoying

[Lenrulesdaworld]

that's a madden glitch, make sure your settings are the same in some games or it won't connect. weird glitch, messed my whole season up

[ironmonkey]

and the bad relationship begins..

[Multiplatguy]

Wasn't this obvious? The deadline was set ten years ago when Halo 2 released and Microsoft changed the project from Halo 2 Anniversary to a Halo collection. Adding more to the workload but keeping the same deadline.

I feel for 343. I really enjoyed the quality of Halo 4 despite it's flaws and I am really liking what they have done with the Halo 5 MP.

[DJStotty]

you have never had to be playing the same game to use party chat. the system was used so that you could easily matchmake and connect party members to the same online game.

i have had an xbox one since launch and i have never had to be playing the same game to use party chat

[qwerty676]

the plot thickens

jk who cares lol.

its working steady for me atm and has been for weeks.

[Tedakin]

Completely speculative. I think 343 just underestimated things, and there was no way they were delaying this one. It's was just an F up on all cylinders.

Halo MCC seems pretty pathetic though when you turn on COD AW or even the Halo 5 beta and the game fills with players and starts in under a minute. MCC still takes way too long to get into a game.

[lfc_4eva]

So where exactly does MS explicityly blame 343?

It says the major issue was with the back end which 343 had no control over. The failings of 343 aren't even explained, so these could be the bugs you kind of expect with such complex gaming projects. Bugs which almost every game gets and every dev tries their best to patch.

[Father__Merrin]

I blame halo gamers for wanting this game badly, which in turn made Microsoft to prematurely release to grab console sales. the game isn't that bad now but should have been withheld till about Feb Mar

[jmc8888]

They wanted new games, and of course Halo would be it, but none of that mattered. You can't think that position is correct when we know full well Microsoft was not targeting a 2013 console release.

THAT decision either pulled everything forward or pushed everything back.

That's why you got games like a remastered Halo with bugs now and games like Halo 5 in 2015, Gears probably 2016, and Crackdown 2017. The big imbalance and gap is the result of launching the Xbox One early.

That sort of thinking also implies that Microsoft cares way more and develops everything around the desires of their customers. They put out MCC because they NEEDED some sort of a blockbuster. That is never the fault of the gamer. Doesn't matter what company it is, the gamer isn't at fault.

As such, with MCC being this bug riddled, and it's only a remaster job not a full fledged new game, one should probably question the readiness of 343 to deliver Halo 5 in a proper state, after all they only have 8-10 1/2 months to release it and they are still monkeying with MCC.

But I guess there is always a chance that Halo 5 is on schedule and that it was the decision to do MCC on the fly that is the problem. We'll see. But it's still looks troubling as MCC still reflects upon them.

[Killzoner99]

It was all Microsoft for sure. They rushed out a broken game.

[marloc_x]

Perhaps some weather effects could smooth things over..