Halo: The Master Chief Collection Matchmaking Patch Due Today

Developer 343 Industries is set to release an update that it says will resolve matchmaking problems in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, as well as make numerous tweaks and improvements to other aspects of the game.

The patch is due to arrive on "mid-late afternoon" Pacific Time on Thursday, which means the update may not arrive in the UK until the early hours of Friday.

Multiplayer connectivity issues have plagued Halo: The Master Chief Collection since its release on November 11. Various bugs within the netcode have effectively locked out many players trying to access the game's online multiplayer modes--a problem which has led 343 Industries to apologise publicly and insist its teams are "working 24/7" to fix the errors.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said he's "disappointed" with the network problems.

The new patch addresses "matchmaking performance, UI, gameplay, and title-specific issues", which 343 industries has detailed below.

"We have additional content updates on the way, and work is already underway in an effort to continue to improve your experience with Halo: The Master Chief Collection," the studio wrote on its official site.

(The list of bug fixes, below, was written by 343 Industries.)

MATCHMAKING

• Addressed a number of issues that resulted in extended matchmaking times and low matchmaking success rates.
• Made a number of updates to how matchmaking progress is communicated to the player. With this update, you’ll see better, more frequent and more informative status updates throughout the matchmaking flow – so “Players Found” for example, will be displayed to let players know where they are in the matchmaking process instead of simply wondering if it’s going to connect.
• The improved matchmaking flow is as follows: Searching, Searching for more players, Players found, Finalizing matchmaking process, Connecting session.
• Made an update to ensure that parties stick together when returning from the post-game carnage report.
• Prevented the ability for players “kick” other players from matchmaking games.
• Made an update to ensure that the Roster correctly displays the “searching” UI rather than “My Game Session” while searching for players.
• Removed the possibility to boost ranking through a custom games exploit.
• Made an update to ensure that players cannot get stuck in the matchmaking screen during map voting.
• Made an update to ensure that the “Connecting to your game” message no longer incorrectly displays in the lower right of the screen during gameplay.\Made an update to the “team creation” phase that allows players to be grouped by team.
• Made an update to prevent players from seeing the “connection failed” dialogue if disconnected during the map voting screen.
• Improved roster / matchmaking lobby stability.
• Made improvements to the accuracy and stability of the “Game Session Details” UI.
• Improved version compatibility

UI

• Improved emblem and nameplate behavior to ensure that they do not reset to default (especially after game sessions).
• Corrected career stats that did not update uniformly across different profiles in multiple titles.
• Improved Forge map display names in Theater
• Corrected various medal inconsistencies across titles

CAMPAIGN

• Made updates to the attainability of various achievements, including “Goat Roped,” “Monopolized,” “You’re Joking,” and “Devastating.”
• Improved Halo: CE career stat tracking.
• Resolved scoring and time HUD reset and display issues.
• Made an update to ensure that rival emblems are displayed correctly

HALO: CE

• Improved consistency and reliability of shot registration.
• Improved headshot hitboxes.
• Fixed an issue where respawning players could momentarily appear at their death location.
• Made an update to ensure that the match ends when the entire opposing team quits.
• Improved fall damage consistency (specifically in regards to uneven surfaces).
• Improved Halo: CE menu and loading screen stability.
• Improved consistency with multikill rewards.
• Made an update to improve post-game carnage report accuracy for Halo: CE FFA games.
• Updated default language settings

HALO 2

• Made an update to ensure that the team color shown in pre-game lobby matches in-game.
• Improved a variety of networking issues to allow for improved consistency between host and clients in peer to peer matches.
• Improved a variety of networking issues to allow for improved gameplay consistency.
• Made an update to service tag functionality, allowing for service tags to appear for all players.
• Improved the post-game carnage report to correctly display team colour.
• Made an update to ensure that the match ends when the entire opposing team quits.
• Improved “original” medal icon functionality in split-screen.
• Improved host migration functionality.
• Corrected “headshot” stat tracking.
• Addressed a crash that occurred with the Scarab skull.
• Addressed art errors that occurred on the opening cinematics for “Uprising” and “High Charity”.

HALO 2: ANNIVERSARY

• Made an update to prevent players from gaining achievements in Forge.
• Improved Forge item display names.
• Resolved text overlapping issues.
• Improved split screen stability.
• Made an update to resolve the notorious “-1th” scoreboard text.
• Improved lobby functionality to address players not being able to reconnect to the party leader after completing a match.
• Improved host migration functionality.
• Corrected vehicle and weapon thumbnails in the “Tools of destruction” table in the post-game carnage report.
• Addressed a dedicated server issue that caused gameplay physics issues on Stonetown.
• Improved split-screen party functionality to ensure that players are not directed to a broken lobby screen after completing a game session.
• Improved Forge mode stability.
• Made an update to King of the Hill scoring to prevent multiple hills from counting down at the same time.
• Improved Shrine objective spawn points.
• Improved King of the Hill and Ninjanaut mode stability.
• Addressed an issue where controller vibration could persist during the pause menu.
• Improved Race mode respawn zones.