343 Industries community director Brian Jarrard and lead producer Michael Fahrny took to Reddit today to answer some burning questions by the community about the recently announced Halo: The Master Chief Collection (MCC) for PC.
The full Reddit AMA can be read here, but let"s get down to the highlights. Starting off, the PC version won"t be restricted to Windows 10, with full Windows 7 support incoming, and 343 is also looking at Windows 8 playability. All of these versions will support cross-play with each other. Cross-play support with Xbox One, however, won"t be there at launch, but might come later.
Modding support was also a popular question in the AMA, and it looks like there"s a pretty good chance of it arriving post-launch, with the developer saying "We are working closely with the members of the modding community (including some friends on the ElDewrito team) to explore our options for "official" mod support."
PC players will be happy to know that 343 is working on FOV sliders and unlocked frame rates across the MCC games. There could be cases where these are inhibited in some ways to avoid game issues though. 21:9, 16:9, 16:10, 3:2, 4:3 aspect ratios are also getting support, covering almost all bases.
Following Reach, the next game in the MCC PC release pipeline is Halo: Combat Evolved, as the studio is following the chronological order of the series. Sadly, when asked if Halo 5 is also in the works for PC, 343 answered that "there are no current plans."
Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be available as a pack to purchase once all of the games are out on PC. Before then, however, PC players will need to buy the games individually as they roll out.
As expected, the developer didn"t shed light on any release windows, saying the games will be "ready when they"re ready." Don"t forget that The Halo Insider Program sign-ups just opened up on PC, giving fans a chance at jumping into early play sessions for helping 343"s development process.