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UPDATE June 9: We've known for a while that Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a thing, but Microsoft has been somewhat tight lipped about it... until another small mention at E3 2019. There's still no confirmed release date for Master Chief's PC debut, but we do know that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be available from launch on Xbox Game Pass... on PC. Yeah, it's quite confusing, but trust us: This is good news. They also shed more information on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription which you may want to get in on early if you're a huge Halo fan!
ORIGINAL STORY: During today's Inside Xbox livestream, Microsoft made an announcement fans have waited a long to hear: Halo: The Master Chief Collection is finally coming to PC, and it's adding the previously excluded Halo: Reach to boot. Better yet, MCC (as we'll refer to it from here on) will be on Steam as well as the Microsoft Store, and already has its own Steam store page. This'll be the perfect way to get all caught up before diving into the long-awaited upcoming sequel Halo Infinite.
Interestingly, MCC on PC won't happen all at once. The newly added Halo: Reach will actually be the first to make the PC jump sometime this year, with Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST's campaign, and Halo 4 being added later (in that order) with the option to buy them individually. Those who already bought MCC on Xbox One needn't feel left out: Reach's multiplayer components, including the Forge and Theater modes, will be added to the Xbox version for free, with the Campaign and Firefight modes coming later as premium add-ons. If you don't feel like spending more, the revamp of Halo: Reach will also be in included in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions.
Brian Jarrard, community director at 343 Industries, shared some insight into how the games will be taking advantage of the PC platform. "PC also has a lot of other expectations that come with it nowadays," he said, citing things like mouse and keyboard controls, FOV sliders, support for ultrawide resolutions, and remappable keybindings. "All the bells and whistles you would expect to find on a modern PC title - that's the kind of thing that the team is really committed to doing as we bring these products to PC," said Jarrard. Reach will also get support for 4K and 60fps.
MCC was definitely the highlight of this Inside Xbox show, but Microsoft had plenty more to show off, including Minecraft being added to Xbox Game Pass, the reveal of a nifty Phantom White controller, and DayZ launching out of the Xbox Game Preview program on March 27. We also got a brief demo of Forza being played on a phone screen attached to a controller, courtesy of xCloud computing. Finally, the list of Xbox One backwards compatible games is getting a massive injection of JRPGs with Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 9, World of Final Fantasy Maxima, Final Fantasy X and X2, Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age, Final Fantasy 15 Pocket Edition.
We went ahead and ranked the best Halo games - see if you agree with our list.
