The studio behind the latest installment in the Halo franchise, 343 Industries, announced on a TeamBeyond.net’s forums that a community playlist and new classic game types are in the works for Halo 5: Guardians and will be released soon. The first of the new classic game types should be released by the end of February if testing goes well, and the new community playlist should be released within a month from now. The forum comment was posted by Josh Holmes, the Executive Producer of Halo 5.
“We’re working on a community playlist now and it should be live within the next month. It’s been pretty incredible seeing what the Forge community has been able to build so quickly with the new toolset and we want to showcase some of those creations. As Bravo has hinted, we’re also working on some new classic game types. We’re hoping to release the first of those toward the end of February, testing permitting.”
Speculation is rising as to which of the classic game types yet to be released for Halo 5 will be introduced in February. Classics like Oddball and Infection have been heavily requested by players, and while Josh Holmes has said multiple classic game types are being worked on, only one will be released sometime next month. These game types bring fun different sets of rules and settings for different types of multiplayer matches.
These types of game modes have been a long tradition of Halo, as well as many other first person shooters, that serve to extend the re-playability of a game and bring more activity to a game’s multiplayer community. Re-introducing fan favorites from other Halo titles will be a welcomed addition to Halo 5.
The new community playlist will also be an important step for the studio as it will highlight the most popular content created with Halo 5’s new Forge toolset. Forge is the toolkit that allows players to build their own custom maps for multiplayer matches.
The announcement by 343 Industries further demonstrates that Microsoft is committed to making the Xbox One with gamers in mind first and foremost, through regular updates and improvements based on user feedback. With sales still well behind Sony’s PS4, hopefully as Microsoft continues to deliver on its promise of gamer first platform, the Xbox One will become a more attractive option for those who have yet to upgrade to the latest generation of consoles.
