Halo: The Master Chief Collection Is "Black Eye For Us," Franchise Director Says

Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been described by Franchise Development Director Frank O'Connor as a "black eye" for series stewards 343 Industries.

Speaking to Xbox Achievements, O'Connor addressed the tumultuous launch of Microsoft's ambitious Halo anthology, which brought together improved versions of the first three games in the series into one package, but was unfortunately plagued by various matchmaking and other network issues.

"Halo: The Master Chief Collection is definitely a black eye for us," he said. "We're not going to rest on our laurels or hide from the mistake we made."

O'Connor went on to attribute some of the woes to the complexities of bringing multiple engines together and trying to make them work harmoniously, as well as the multi-studio development effort.

"I will say that the nature of The Master Chief Collection - you've got five different game engines, you've got different studios working on it, you've got 343 working on putting it all together - the footprint and complexity was outrageous."

Continuing, the 343 exec said having the game in the hands of players threw up hurdles that the studio "simply didn't see in a test environment."

O'Connor went on to provide assurances that the issues that contributed to The Master Chief Collection's problems would not be stumbling blocks for Halo 5: Guardians.

"Halo 5 is being made by a completely different team. It's a singular product," he said. "It was built from the ground up for this new technology, rather than being sort of dragged kicking and screaming from 2001 and forced and shoehorned into a 2014 console.

"The problem spaces are still very challenging but they're radically different. I think the beta is already a decent first step, in a retail environment, showing that we don't have the same problems."

The Halo 5 release date has been confirmed as October 27. Producer Josh Holmes recently confirmed that the game will use dedicated servers for all multiplayer, including custom games.