To put it mildly, 343 Industries’ much-hyped Halo: The Master Chief Collection missed the mark late last year when it launched on Xbox One to a myriad of technical bugs and game-crashing server issues. It wasn’t a situation that could be rectified overnight, either, with early adopters left faced with a seemingly relentless onslaught of patches and game updates all in an effort to plug the holes of a compilation that essentially release broken.
Did we say something about putting it mildly?
Regardless, 2015 marks a new start for 343 Industries, and though informed consumers are tapering their expectations for Halo 5: Guardians after The Master Chief Collection, Xbox Boss Phil Spencer has assured fans that the sequel won’t fall foul to the mistakes of yesteryear.
In an interview with GameSpot, here’s what Spencer had to offer ahead of Guardians‘ release in little over a month’s time, noting that it is the creative team at 343 that are more concerned about avoiding the same mistakes than anyone else.
“I know that of all of our teams, no team at their core feels the need to hit a great launch from a multiplayer and connection issues more than 343,” he explained. “That team took the issues around the launch of Master Chief Collection, it kind of hit them in the heart, because it’s Halo Nation. It’s the people who love these past Halo games.”
“Frankly, if I look at how Rare came out [with Rare Replay] and Gears [Ultimate Edition] came out, and now Forza, I feel good that the teams all up have taken the lessons of last holiday of some teams missing the bar that they wanted to hit,” Spencer said. “You’re always going to have issues here and there, and you kind of manage through it, but by-and-large, those releases have gone well. It’s really nice to see that the teams have taken an increased focus on making sure that launch goes extremely well for our customers.”
That’s not to say that Halo 5: Guardians will launch flaw-free in October, given its online nature, but the fact that Spencer has expressed his own confidence in the product does at least allay lingering fears that the title will launch headfirst into problems.
Halo 5: Guardians will release exclusively for Xbox One on October 27.