April's Halo: The Master Chief Collection update tests demonstrate faster matchmaking

A few months ago, 343 Industries said that Halo: The Master Chief Collection was getting enhanced for Xbox One X. Aside from upgrading the resolution, the team would fix matchmaking and all the other online issues the title still experiences years later.

At the end of April, certain testers were given access to an updated build of the game. The purpose of this test was to make sure the new matchmaking system was working properly. In a post on the developer's website, a 343 Industries spokesperson detailed the goals of the test.

The first public flight was designed to help stress test all the core matchmaking updates the team has been working on over the past few months. This major foundational overhaul and modernization work is really at the core of the biggest changes... many of the issues and areas of feedback fans have been most vocal about stem from the game's original matchmaking systems... One important note is that this flight was intentionally setup to run with peer-to-peer networking. You may recall that we've already announced that following the official retail update... matchmaking games will run via dedicated server. However, for this flight, the dedicated servers weren't quite fully ready for prime time and we still needed to validate and test peer-to-peer networking.

The tests were a success and some of the main takeaway points are listed below. The main problem Halo: The Master Chief Collection suffered from was unreliable and slow matchmaking. Luckily, this seems to have fixed that.

• More than 14,000 total matchmaking attempts were made over the course of the three test sessions.
• Matchmaking success rates significantly exceeded goals.
• Time-to-match results were significantly faster than goals. The vast majority of players were into matches in less than 38 seconds.

Hopefully 343 Industries will completely fix Halo: The Master Chief Collection this time around. The whole network code has to be redone. Accumulating all of the games featuring Master Chief is easier said than implemented. However, given the release of the Xbox One X and updated development tools, it seems like it's finally possible.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection was quite a big deal when it came in 2014. For the first time ever, The Master Chief's entire story was available on one console. The game feature a remastered Halo 2: Anniversary, along with Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 3, and Halo 4. You can also purchase an Halo 3: ODST add-on for the title if you like. If you love Halo, or love first-person shooters in general, then this is the definitive collection to own.

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