Halo: The Master Chief Collection: We are Golden

Hey there Halo fans!

It’s been a long, crazy, exciting road, and we’re finally
getting close to launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection in November.  I wanted to personally share some big status
updates with you. Let’s start with the biggest:

Halo: The Master Chief Collection has gone GOLD!

This is a massive milestone for the team and also means that the game is available for Pre-Order and Pre-Download right now!.  I couldn’t be more excited to start having
fans grab this game online so everyone can hit the ground running on release
day! The team has been working incredibly hard to make this happen, so we’re
all eager for you to play this labor of love.

One of the questions we get asked most is about worldwide
release plans.  The reality of worldwide
sales and retail processes always makes simultaneous launches challenging.  Some fans expressed disappointment in our
original planned release date of November 11 in North America and November 14
in several other territories around the world. We heard you loud and clear, and
I am happy to announce that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be released
on November 11 for the majority of our fans around world!

There are still a few countries that will see a slight delay
due to public holidays. In Europe, Belgium will release on November 12 and
France will release on November 14 as part of their typical Friday release
schedule.  Our fans in Japan will see a
release of November 13.  Given the social
aspects of the experience, we were really happy to get it as close to a simultaneous
worldwide release as possible so that we can all celebrate on November 11 and
start playing together.

This is literally going to be the biggest Halo experience so
far

That is to say, the sheer size and scope of the content. To
recap, Halo: The Master Chief Collection contains four complete Halo games,
every multiplayer map ever released (including DLC from console and PC) across
each game, a complete remaster of Halo 2 with all-new audio and Blur’s
mind-blowing cinematics, and all of this is tied together with (and enhanced
by) a revolutionary user interface.

From the start, our philosophy has been to give Halo fans
the best possible experience and not compromise the quality or features of the
collection.  The result is that Halo: The
Master Chief Collection
will take up almost all of the usable space of a single
Blu-ray (45 GB), and we will also issue a content update at launch that is
estimated to be 20 GB.  You’ll be able to
start playing Campaign and more as the content is installing, with some
features and multiplayer content being added via the update. Yes, the update is
large, but we weren’t about to cut corners to save disc space.  This ensures that you are getting every bit
of Halo goodness we can fit in.  Our work
is not done, however, as we continue to tune, tweak and optimize the online
experience to ensure a smooth multiplayer launch. This will continue right up until launch day.

One caveat we wanted to share is that Spartan Ops, our
episodic co-op experience from Halo 4, will now release in December.  In the meantime, we’re making some technical
enhancements to that experience to make sure it’s smoother and even better than
before. All ten episodes will be available at the same time, so we’re working
to make an event out of it with our Community teams.

26 more sleeps!

Lastly, I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to you, our
fans. Development of a game is always hard, but Halo: The Master Chief
Collection
has been the most challenging of my career. No team has really
attempted a project like this, and the number of moving pieces has been
staggering. The development team at 343 Industries has been working hard
alongside our partners to make this happen and, at every step, you have been
there for us. Whether it’s with encouraging words at events, or via messages on
Twitter, I can tell you that your feedback is crucial and fuels our drive to
make Halo: The Master Chief Collection the best it can be.

I’d like to thank you all for your continued enthusiasm,
excitement and support for this game. See you on Xbox Live!

-Dan