Halo: The Master Chief Collection next-gen upgrade lets Series X players match with Xbox One

Halo MCC
(Image credit: 343 Industries)

Halo: The Master Chief Collection supports full cross-gen matchmaking between the Xbox Series X and the Xbox One families. 

In a recent Halo Waypoint blog post, senior producer Matt Hohl explained some of the features heading to MCC when the upgrade drops on November 17.

If you're a committed MCC player, you might have noticed a small patch released last week. According to Hohl, that update was designed "to make sure players can play together across Xbox generations," as the loading times on the new consoles are so short "that we have to make sure it doesn't disrupt matchmaking." Sadly, that might suggest that you'll still have to wait for loading screens if you're playing alongside those on the older machines.

Elsewhere, Hohl says there'll be "a raw performance improvement across the board" for those playing on the Xbox Series X or Series S, allowing for frame rates of up to 120fps at 4K on the Series X (you'll only get 1080p on Series S). If your setup isn't quite good enough to support all those frames, however, you should get to see some other benefits - "we have also included some graphic enhancements to the game such as increased draw distances within levels and improved split-screen experiences in Campaign and Multiplayer."

A few of those features, as well as the next-gen upgrade itself, were announced last month, confirming the launch of this update for November 17. Even if the MCC isn't quite an Xbox Series X launch game (and in spite of the Halo Infinite delay), Master Chief won't be absent from the new consoles for too long.

Check out what else is in store for Master Chief with the upcoming Xbox Series X games.

Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

Latest in Halo
Halo 3
Halo 3 streamers claim a world record by beating the game's near-impossible LASO challenge in only 4 hours without dying once
halo
Microsoft said "'Nah'" to the Halo x Doom crossover pitched for Amazon's Secret Level, but I'm crossing my fingers for Season 2
Last Spartan Standing
With Concord in the rearview, Halo Infinite dev is glad it's still kicking "in a climate where games can be shut down with little notice"
Master Chief holds a beaming energy sword in our first look at Project Foundry
Almost 100GB of classic Halo content has leaked online, including the 1999 demo from when the legendary FPS was in third person
Halo Wars promo image showing top-down RTS combat
Master Chief's absence from Halo Wars wasn't Bungie's fault, it was a move to make players "care about everybody else" in the RTS
Halo 2
The Halo 2 Arbiter mission that Bungie scrapped 21 years ago has been officially restored as a playable Master Chief Collection mod
Latest in News
Adam Scott as Mark S and Britt Lower as Helly R in Severance season 2
There might have been another reason for Mark's decision in the Severance season 2 finale
Silent Hill f art showing a person covered in plants
Silent Hill f has been pre-emptively banned in Australia, with no reason given for the 'refused classification' rating
Assassin's Creed Shadows review gameplay showing Yasuke overlooking the sea and lush green scenery
Assassin's Creed Shadows has already "surpassed the launches of AC Origins and Odyssey" with 2 million players and counting
Helldivers 2 screenshot showing someone using a big gun
Helldivers 2 boss says "death and rebirth" is a natural part of the games industry, but it's "unnecessarily brutal" right now "because we don't diversify enough"
A Dragon Age character stares out against a blue background.
BioWare makes a return to Dragon Age: The Veilguard with a surprise PC update, months after layoffs and a seemingly final patch
God of War 3
God of War PSP's seamless loading was only possible because a Jak & Daxter game was also running in the background