Launching one week after consoles
IfHalois Xbox’s flagship franchise,The Master Chief Collectionis its crown jewel. This anthology ofHalogames is being constantly updated and ported, made better and better as time goes on. It’s no surprise it’ll be present right alongside the new generation of Xbox consoles.
Microsoft announced today thatHalo: The Master Chief Collectionwill be “fully optimized” for Xbox Series S/X starting on November 17. That means hitting 120fps in both campaign and multiplayer, improvements to split-screen, and hitting 4K on Xbox Series X.
It’s time to dust off the ol’ Needler.
✅ Fully Optimized on Series X|S✅ 120 FPS in Campaign & Multiplayer✅ Split-screen improvements & up to 4K on Series X✅ Available for free to existing owners or those with@XboxGamePasson November 17pic.twitter.com/Ufusdsyd8C
— Xbox (@Xbox)July 10, 2025
In my opinion, there’s exactly one surprise here. I expected the Xbox Series X could hit 4K. I expectedHaloto quickly fall in line as some of the earlier games that could be played on next-gen Xbox — even if it didn’t makelast week’s list of launch titles. I didn’t, however, expect that Xbox Series S would be capable of playing all these games at 120 frames per second. (Although, it may be worth mentioning that there’s no specification as to what resolution compromises are made to hit this performance target.)
Xbox’s commitment to backward compatibility ensured thatHalo: The Master Chief Collectionwould make the transition to Xbox Series S/X. However, we weren’t guaranteed that 343 Industries would give us the best possible console version of these games. It’s a nice consolation considering we aren’t getting a newHalogame at launch.
