Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a compilation of first-person shooter video games in the Halo series, originally released in November 2014 for the Xbox One, and later on Microsoft Windows through 2019 and 2020. The enhanced version was released for the Xbox Series X|S in November 2020. The collection was developed by 343 Industries in partnership with other studios and was published by Xbox Game Studios. The collection consists of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4, which were originally released on earlier Xbox platforms. A “living” anthology of past Halo games, it continues to receive regular updates and new content as more games age-out of being commonly offered in the retail setting.

Each game added to the Master Chief Collection receives a graphical upgrade, with Halo 2 receiving a complete high-definition redesign of its audio and cutscenes, exclusive to the collection, to celebrate its 10 year anniversary. The game includes access to the live-action series Halo: Nightfall as well as the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta that was available for a limited time. The collection’s multiplayer features every map originally released with each game, including six Halo 2 maps remade from the ground up.

At launch, critics generally praised The Master Chief Collection for its updated audio and visuals, as well as its quantity of content, but criticized its multiplayer aspects due to a significant number of bugs and poor matchmaking experiences. Many of these technical issues were later fixed in post-release patches.