The Halo franchise is slowly making its debut on Steam PC and now Microsoft has started to share more about what’s coming next.
As many Halo fans will already know, Halo Reach is currently the only title from the franchise available to play on Steam.
This will soon be followed by other MCC games, including Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign) and Halo 4.
According to Microsoft and developers 343 Industries, there is a big team working on the Halo franchise right now.
Many of these are helping to bring the full MCC experience to Steam and other PC platforms in 2020. And from what has been shared this week, Halo CE will be the next game to launch on PC.
New beta flights are being planned for January and should be followed by support for Halo 2. So it looks like Microsoft started with Halo Reach and is working through the rest of the games numerically.
And it won’t just be improvements for PC, as current MCC players on Xbox One will also benefit.
“As we close the year out and start to look at what’s ahead of us in 2020, I wanted to give you an update on progress we’re making on the other games heading to MCC on PC,” a message from 343 explains.
“Right now, we have a good-sized army of developers working through different development streams to support our efforts across ongoing Reach updates and quality of life improvements in addition to Halo: CE Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, and Forge & Theater support (Reach first).
“Halo: ODST (Campaign) and Halo 4 are a little further out but rest assured they’re also coming to MCC on PC in 2020.”
Currently, these look to be the next features for gamers to look forward to on Xbox One and PC: Progression System Improvements, Text Chat Improvements, and Double Key binds.
Another big one is cross-platform support between Xbox One and PC players, which would help keep player numbers healthy throughout 2020. Microsoft has also stated that PC features could come to Xbox One in the future.
Unfortunately, Microsoft has also confirmed that Cross-Play between Xbox & PC is not in active development but is on a list of things to do in the future.
It follows shock news linking Halo games with a release on the rival Nintendo Switch console.
A new post on ResetEra provided by the King Zell account suggests that something Halo related is coming to Nintendo Switch.
This account has been linked with past rumours that have proven true, giving what it says more clout.
And it should be pointed out that no real details are part of this new leak, with King Zell writing: “I’m definitely not back, just dropped by to say Halo.”
This was in reply to the account coming out of status to post something new, followed by another comment linking a Halo announcement to a future Nintendo Direct.
Commenting on the likelihood of something being announced at The Game Awards, Zell replied: “I don’t think Microsoft or Nintendo will waste their slot at such an event to promote something for another console.
“If it happened it will be on a Direct.”
This was followed by another leaker talking about a Halo game appearing on Nintendo Switch, having shared the news earlier in 2019.
The Sabi Twitter account posted earlier this week: “It’s nice seeing Master Chief Collection for Switch being talked about again, nine months after I was talking about it here.
“That info came from a really weird place, so I was kinda sceptical back then, but it’s nice seeing King Zell reaffirm it.”
All of this needs to be taken with a big pinch of salt, as there is still no firm evidence to suggest The Halo Master Chief Collection will ever be launched on Nintendo Switch.
And it should be noted that there have been no links made between Halo launching on the PS4 or future PS5 console.