As Halo: The Master Chief Collection enters its seventh year, 343 Studios continues its support of the compilation and its ever-popular multiplayer on PC and Xbox consoles. This trend continues as the game ramps up for its seventh season as several big changes are on the docket for the compilation with its next update. Some of these have been outlined by 343, highlighting the changes coming to game mode browsing, bans, and anti-cheat.
Season 7 of Halo: The Master Chief Collection is set to begin in 2021, though a specific date has not been announced by 343. The studio has also been quiet about any new content that could be finding its way into the game when the new season launches.
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However, some of the changes coming as part of the seasonal balance update tease some big plans on the part of 343. Coming via GameSpot, 343 community support and engagement coordinator Tyler Davis spoke about some of these changes and how these may impact the player experience. These include new quit bans, reworks to the still-in-development custom games browser after its initial stress test in Season 6, and touching up the compilation's visuals to keep and addressing visual bugs.
The quit bans are the latest means 343 is taking to discourage players from quitting out while a game is in progress and potentially ruin it for the rest of their team. Bans will specifically target the first half of a team to quit during a match and ban times scaling up with every offense. The first offense will result in a 5 minute ban and the current plan is to cap it at six offenses. After the sixth offense, quitters will be hit with a 16 hour ban from the Master Chief Collection's multiplayer. However, 343 did assure players if they quit after half the team already has they will not be punished.
More changes are in the works for the game's anti-cheat and protections from hackers, though 343 was understandably tight-lipped about these. That said, 343 assures players they are working diligently with their security partners to continue improving anti-cheat and stop hackers in the game.
Regarding the custom games browser, 343 thanked players who participated in the stress test and is already working on improvements and match features from the feedback. Quicker matchmaking and finding full sessions are the first two issues 343 is working to address, while more reworks are said to be in the works. Other changes 343 also teased include typical bug fixes seen with every seasonal patch and reworks to a few multiplayer maps. Two of the maps getting reworks are Waterfall and Edge, both of which will be seen during the Season 7 flight testing ahead of the season going live.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is currently available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X.
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Source: GameSpot