Halo: The Master Chief Collection will not be part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program when it releases on PC beginning later this year. The PC Halo collection was announced during the March Inside Xbox show and will include Halo Reach for the first time.
343 Industries’ studio head Bonnie Ross confirmed the news at South by Southwest (SXSW) over the weekend. Speaking during the Halo Championship Series Invitational, Ross said, “While MCC shipped before the XPA Play Anywhere, we are exploring ways to make sure that we show our appreciation and recognition for the support we’ve had from the amazing fans on MCC and we’ll have more to announce as we get closer to launched.”
Xbox Play Anywhere is a program that gives certain Xbox One games cross-buy and cross-play capabilities between Microsoft’s console and Windows PC. The program is in place for a variety of Xbox first-party games, and was originally suggested to be for every new game the company publishes. Currently the program is a mix of Microsoft-published and third-party owned games 73 titles deep. Every Xbox One game released by Microsoft since the program was announced has been included, with exceptions for titles like Minecraft which was around several years prior to the program.
As it is, the PC Halo collection won’t be part of the program when it releases this year. The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One suffered from a range of problems at launch that have taken 343 Industries years to correct. The developer is releasing MCC on PC with a staggered approach starting with Halo Reach.
Halo on PC will soon include every title in the series excluding the Halo 5 campaign and multiplayer suite. Microsoft and 343 have not announced pricing for the PC Halo collection, which includes two more games than the Xbox One collection had at launch. It’s likely that campaigns and other modes might be sold piece-meal, as Halo Reach‘s campaign on Xbox One will be an additional purchase.
