“Please, don't send anymore pizzas to 343 Industries,” Brian Jarrard tweeted in March of this year. “The building receptionist isn't here so it's getting logistically challenging and we really don't want to see food to go waste [sic].”
Jarrard, 343’s Halo community manager, wasn’t kidding. On March 12, Jarrard and a few other 343 Industries employees tweeted evidence of an onslaught of pizzas that had been sent to the 343 offices in Redmond, Washington. A Reddit post from earlier in the month was to blame. It simply read: “I will buy the first 343 employee that comments on this pizza if MCC for PC gets announced during the special announcement this month.”
That Redditor’s prayers — along with the prayers of many passionate Halo fans — were answered when 343 announced that they will be bringing Halo: The Master Chief Collection to PC, starting with 2010’s Halo: Reach. This was an especially significant announcement given that the last Halo game released for PC was Halo 2 in 2007. In fact, The Master Chief Collection marks the first appearance on PC for Reach, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo 4.
But even more than that, The Master Chief Collection’s arrival on PC bridges the gap between generations of Halo players. “For lots of folks, Halo is a source of amazing experiences, memories, and friendships that we've had over a long period of time,” 343 Design Director Max Szlagor said. “Now we're seeing folks that have since grown up and have had kids, and they're actually bonding with their kids over Halo.”
Bridging the gap between the past and present isn’t always easy, however. In bringing The MCC to PC players in 2019, 343 must appeal to all types of Halo fans, both old and new. “When we think about how to bring this to PC or how to update The Master Chief Collection, a lot of it is: How do we actually improve the experience for new players? How do we make sure that we retain the core of what's really strong about Halo and bring it to PC in an authentic way?” Szlagor said.
For example, when 343 opened playtesting for Halo: Reach’s “Firefight” mode up to a pool of Halo fans, they found that the length of the matches were much longer than what PC players would normally expect from an FPS title. Despite this, they couldn’t simply redesign the game mode from the ground up without compromising the essence of what made the mode so enjoyable when it first appeared in 2009’s Halo 3: ODST.
“What we can do,” Producer Sean Swidersky said, “is look at ways to change things like the time length or the kill scores to align with a more modern feel and experience.” In addition, 343 has consulted members of Halo’s fan community, content creators, and even 343’s in-house pro team to gather feedback on what to improve or modify.
343 doesn’t want to settle on simply “remastering” The Master Chief Collection for PC; they want it to feel like a collection of PC-native titles. Yet PC gamers are accustomed to a greater amount of customizability, especially with regard to things like scalable FOV or resolution. In addition, introducing keyboard and mouse inputs to games like Halo: Reach opens another can of worms when it comes to settings like key bindings or mouse sensitivity.
In Halo: Reach, for instance, 343 has found that even something like walking while crouching can be difficult to achieve when using a keyboard. “The feedback we get is that it doesn't feel modernized, but it's the legacy behavior that the title had,” Swidersky explained. Any change 343 makes to the control scheme, however, has to feel right for both players who prefer mouse and keyboard and players who prefer controllers. These are the kinds of challenges 343 encounter across their numerous playtesting sessions.
Even still, these considerations haven’t deterred 343 from making The Master Chief Collection feel as familiar as possible to PC gamers. They’ve relied heavily on community feedback to identify the proper adjustments they need to make. “We've added a number of settings that are unique to the PC platform,” Swidersky said. “That includes support for a variety of aspect ratios including ultra-wide monitors, uncapped frame rate, and an FOV slider.”
343 is passionate about bringing The Master Chief Collection to a contemporary PC audience because they feel strongly that Halo continues to maintain a unique position in the FPS ecosystem. “A lot of these games have super fast kill times,” Swidersky said. Yet Halo’s deliberately slow pacing, due in large part to its shield recharging mechanic, grants it a special rhythm that’s difficult to replicate in other contexts. “In this day and age it still has, at the sandbox level, a really awesome mechanic that's still holds its own in the FPS genre,” he said.
Whether you’re eager to relive old memories or seeking a change in pace from other FPS games on the market, the release of Halo: Reach on PC is cause for celebration. For the Halo fans that have been following 343 since the initial announcement, Szlagor said, “Thank you very much for your support of Halo. We hope that folks are excited to jump in on this journey with us.” Just don’t send them any more pizzas.