Here’s a bunch of news about the upcoming collection of all four numbered Halo games for the Xbox One, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and almost all of it is good- for starters, the game has now gone gold. This means that all development, testing, and debugging is now complete, and the game is now being printed on retail discs that are being shipped out as we speak. What this means is- there is no scope for any more delays. The game is done.
In fact, delays are the exact opposite of what we can expect, and that brings me to the second bit of good news. The release date for Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been moved up in the UK and most other European territories. Originally, the game was scheduled for a release there on November 14, which would have been three days after its North American release on November 11. However, now, most of the world gets to play the Collection all at once.
“There are still a few countries that will see a slight delay due to public holidays,” wrote executive producer Dan Ayoub on Halo Waypoint. “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.”
The final bit of news for the game isn’t necessarily good, although it doesn’t have to be bad either. And that is, that there will be a day one update for the game. Which is pretty standard, I mean even Nintendo games ship out with day one updates these days. But no, this update will be a mind boggling 20GB in size. 20 GB. That’s bigger than a whole lot of Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and most Wii U, games.
“Yes, the update is large, but we weren’t about to cut corners to save disc space,” said Ayoub. “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.”
Halo: The Master Chief Collection now launches in less than a month. Stay tuned for more coverage.