Soon, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be making its way to PC, and though the entire collection will have been released on the platform by the end of this year, it will see that release happen not in one go, but in increments. The first release will be with Halo Reach, which is also being added to the collection, with the next releases happening in the order of the series’ chronology, going right up until Halo 4 (no Halo 5: Guardians for the collection).
However, though Reach signifies the return of the franchise to PC for the first time since 2007, it will be made available first – at least in beta form – to Xbox One players. In a new Halo Insider update, 343 Industries confirmed that the Halo Reach beta would be going live on the Xbox One “in a matter of weeks”, before clarifying that they’re not giving an exact date in case “the schedule shifts”.
The developer has also confirmed that the PC version will be following not long after the Xbox One version, with the reason for the gap being that “the console version is a bit further along than the PC version and will be ready to flight sooner”. Depending on the timing of the gap between the two versions, the Xbox One might even get another testing phase for the game before PC players get some hands-on time.
“PC, as you can imagine, is a different beast,” the developer wrote, “and we want to ensure that the first flight has adequate PC-specific UI in place, which takes time. We don’t expect a particularly big gap in time but we are going to flight on Xbox One first (possibly even another flight on there too, depending on timing) before Halo: Reach PC flighting begins.”
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC – whenever it launches – will be available through both, the Microsoft Store, and Steam. Stay tuned for more updates.