Category: Consoles

343 Industries Details Massive Updates for Halo Esports and Halo Games

Today, the Halo Livestream unleashed a torrent of news bits, updates, and insight on a pretty diverse range of topics near and dear to a Halo fan’s heart – including Halo 5: Guardians’ November content “Overtime” update, important Halo esports info and news on Halo: The Master Chief Collection. There’s a lot to unpack – check out Halo Waypoint for full details and below for a quick rundown of all the amazing Halo news today.

Halo Esports Updates
One of the prime highlights of the stream was brand new information and updates on the immediate future of Halo esports – from upcoming championships, to local competitions, and new ways to support some of your favorite squads.

Halo World Championship 2018. Halo’s world stage is back, and better than ever. With open qualifiers in four different regions and the best Halo players and teams across the world vying for glory, the Halo World Championship 2018 aims to unleash a heroic new chapter in an already-legendary legacy.
HCS Fall 2017 Finals. The HCS Fall 2017 Finals at DreamHack Denver are this weekend! The action is going to be incredibly intense, and you aren’t going to want to miss a moment of it – catch it all streamed live on Mixer.com/Halo& Twitch.tv/Halo! For all the latest information, as well as predictions from our experts in the booth, make sure to check out our full HCS Fall 2017 Finals Preview.
Team Skins are Coming to Halo 5: Guardians. Beginning with Halo 5:Guardians’ Overtime update (more on this below), you’ll begin to see some new weapon skins arrive in Halo 5: Guardians over the next several months, including new liveries for Luminosity, Str8 Rippin and defending HCS Pro League champions, Splyce, and more; stay tuned for more info on individual skin availability in the future!
Microsoft Store Tournament Program. We’re excited to announce an expanded Microsoft Store Halo 5: Guardians tournament program that sees the slate grow from three months to five, and from 53 stores to 83 – meaning every Microsoft Store on the planet will be hosting Halo 5: Guardians tournaments beginning next month! The action kicks off on Monday Nov 6 and runs through March 2018, so make sure you find your nearest location and register online now to be part of all the action!

Halo Recruit
Speaking of awesome stuff going on, beginning today all Microsoft Stores will be featuring the recently announced Halo Recruit on Windows 10 Mixed Reality devices, letting you experience your favorite universe in a way you’ve never done before. Also, if you’ve got a Windows Mixed Reality device at home, you can download Halo Recruit and try it out for yourself on your own machine! Trust us, you should give it a look. And for more information on the Halo Recruit project, you can check out our official announcement here.

Halo Oddball
Halo 5: Guardians Overtime Content Release
The Halo 5: Guardians Overtime content release brings a host of tweaks, adjustments and other goodies all designed to improve overall player experience. Let’s a closer look at the big-ticket items we’ve got in store.

4K Upgrades. The team at 343 Industries has been working closely with Skybox Labs (longtime Halo development partners on various projects including Halo 5: Forge for Windows 10) on enhancements to Halo 5: Guardians for Xbox One X. This update takes advantage of the extra power of Xbox One X to deliver higher visual fidelity for players who have compatible hardware.
Oddball. Oddball is back in Halo 5: Guardians, with a full suite of mode-specific medals, new VO and a return of the ballyhooed and beloved skull as “the ball.” This fan-favorite mode looks to give players yet another way to have a blast with fellow Spartans on the battlefield.
Local Server app. With this new app, players can host a local server on a Windows 10 PC connected to the same network as Xbox One consoles to enjoy easy, low-latency Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer matches – perfect for basement brawls or running your own tournament – big or small.
Weapon Tuning Update. Last month 343 Industries conducted a public test of these newly tuned weapons in a special matchmaking playlist which you can read all about right here. Over the course of the test we received an enormous amount of feedback via our Halo Waypoint forums and official surveys which, along with a plethora of game data, have helped the team assess and refine these weapons before they get released in the November update. Check out Halo Waypoint for a breakdown of what to expect.

Relief & Recovery REQ Pack
Last week, 343 Industries introduced the Relief & Recovery REQ Pack in Halo 5: Guardians in response to the seemingly unending string of challenges reality has thrown humanity’s way recently. With 100 percent of the proceeds from the Relief & Recovery REQ Pack going to GlobalGiving, Spartans have stepped up in a big way. You can grab the pack from Oct. 12-23 both in the Halo 5: Guardians in-game REQ Store or in the Xbox Live Store for $9.99 USD.

Halo Wars 2
It’s no secret that Halo Wars 2 is also getting enhanced for Xbox One X with visual upgrades that will also take advantage of what the newest console has to offer. But perhaps what’s even more exciting for Halo Wars 2 players are the two other additions coming to game – for everyone, on all platforms – with this next update.

Xbox Arena. We’re excited to be rolling out support for Xbox Arena which will let players organize and conduct their own online tournaments in Halo Wars 2. Xbox Arena on Xbox Live officially launched in May and the 343 team has been working closely with our partners at Creative Assembly and on the Xbox platform team to bring this great feature to Halo Wars 2.
Crossplay for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. As an Xbox Play Anywhere title, players have the ability to enjoy Halo Wars 2 on their console or PC, but up until now that has not included cross-platform online play. The team has worked hard to deliver this feature and final testing indicates it’s ready for release into the wild. Cross-play and Arena support and the Xbox One X visual enhancements are all targeted for release in late October.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Fans of classic Halo games also have a lot to look forward to with today’s announcement that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will receive enhancements for Xbox One X, as well as fixes, improvements and upgrades to the core game to help bring it forward and modernize many of the game’s systems to take advantage of Xbox platform advancements since its original launch. To help facilitate this process, 343 Industries is planning to roll out a public “flighting” program for Halo: The Master Chief Collection to allow for iterative patches and updates while testing in the wild at large scale. Right now, 343 Industries is targeting kicking this off next spring and when the time comes, we’ll need the support of our community to help test and provide feedback at large scale as we work to update and improve Halo: The Master Chief Collection. We’ll share additional details and timing as plans are locked.

Xbox One S Ultimate Halo Bundle
Now’s an incredible time to experience the Master Chief’s epic journey across five Halo games The Master Chief Collection, featuring Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, and Halo 4, as well as Halo 5: Guardians, which delivers epic multiplayer experiences that span multiple modes, full-featured level building tools, and the most dramatic Halo story to date. With an MSRP of $279 and available exclusively at Walmart in the US, this amazing offer includes one free month of Xbox Game Pass – instant access to more than 100 great games and a 14-day Xbox Live gold trial.

We hope that with all the exciting news and events outlined in today’s livestream, you’ll agree that it’s a pretty awesome time to be a Halo fan. Be sure to stay tuned to Xbox Wire and Halo Waypoint for all the latest Halo news.