Halo: The Master Chief Collection is finally getting an update to fix its infamous matchmaking woes

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is about to get a 4K-sized kick in the pants. The assemblage of Halo 1-4 and Halo 3: ODST is coming to Xbox Game Pass on September 1, bringing with it a suite of bug fixes, matchmaking improvements, and visual improvements for those playing on Xbox One X, including 4K resolution and HDR support.

If you've somehow missed out on all the drama, the short and sweet version is that Halo: The Master Chief Collection was not as well-received as fans (and surely Microsoft) would have hoped back in 2014. This, by the way, is what is known as "putting things lightly".

While the idea of combining every Halo game to star the green-clad supersoldier under one roof while giving Halo 2 a next-gen facelift was certainly an appealing idea, the reality was too often a buggy, unstable mess. Developer 343 Industries patched the game to tolerable levels over the following months, but it wasn't until now, almost four years later, that a major overhaul would completely rework the anthology.

Over on Halo Waypoint, 343 technical director Greg Hermann breaks down just what the update actually does - be forewarned, it's a lot of tech jargon that probably won't appeal to you unless you're familiar with software / network engineering - but the long and short of it is that matchmaking should be smoother, the games within MCC should launch faster, and everything should look just a bit crisper and more colorful.

Of course, we've been promised improvements before. We'll have to wait until September 1 to see if this time The Master Chief Collection can live up to its titular hero.

Want to know what's next for the Halo franchise? Check out our round-up of all the news regarding the recently-announced Halo: Infinite.