343 Industries made Halo fans weep for joy when they revealed that the Halo Master Chief Collection – including Halo Reach – would be coming to PC later this year. While we don’t have a release date at this time, knowing that it’s on the way is phenomenal news. Unfortunately, however, it looks like the team has hit a snag and that snag means a slight delay.
Halo Community Director Brian Jarrard took to his Twitter to deliver the bad news:
Well this tweet didn’t age well. Hey, this project is complex, and being transparent means sometimes things change vs. what we originally hoped. Work continues but the first public flights are pushing out further than originally targeted. Will share more info soon! https://t.co/aSCB37ZxD2
— Brian Jarrard (@ske7ch) April 29, 2019
Unfortunately for the team, Reach is proving to be a bit more difficult than they anticipated when bringing over to the PC platform. We knew this delay was a possibility last month when 343 took to their blog to provide an update containing optimism and a cautious warning concerning the upcoming port:
“Previously I’ve said that “if things go according to plan, flighting should begin this month.” As we’re now in the back half of April, I’m still optimistic this will be the case but it’s also possible those plans may not fully land as we initially hoped. Folks that have been around and follow me know that I’m all about trying to be as upfront and honest as possible – both with good news and less favorable news. This means that sometimes we may share information about the current state of affairs and targets and plans that could end up changing slightly or dramatically. As long as folks want an open dialog, I’m happy to keep the information flowing, but we just need to all be mindful that talking about stuff early means there are always risks of changes – but I’m committed to keeping you abreast of the full story and when things change, sharing that info as soon as possible so we’re always all on the same page. Cool? Cool.”
The team also talked about the partnership with Splash Damage and Ruffian to get the PC port in working order, talking about the snags that come with switching up platforms. “PC is considerably more complicated and requires a lot more work. We have internal builds floating around and have had lots of internal playtests that have been helping to generate bugs and gather valuable feedback. One of the team’s main priorities to support PC flighting is getting the mouse/keyboard controls feeling as good as possible and there’s been good progress on that front.”
Though a delay is confirmed – though not definite – it does bode well for the future release that they are paying such special attention to ensuring the quality is golden – something that is imperative given the previous launch’s controversy.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to get a more concrete update here shortly, perhaps even a release date for E3, but for now it looks like the team is working hard to do right by their Halo fans.
