Microsoft just launched Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the Xbox One, and the shooter is facing a number of issues that are preventing players from getting the full online experience. But that’s not because Master Chief lacks dedicated servers.
Like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the Halo bundle uses a hybrid system that features both dedicated servers and peer-to-peer connections. It always tries to host its public matches on the best connection (which is almost always the dedicated servers), but that’s not always possible.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1604926,"post_type":"exclusive","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"A"}']We asked Microsoft for more information, and the company helped us better understand how it all works.
“Halo: The Master Chief Collection indeed uses dedicated servers for matchmade games,” a Microsoft spokesperson told GamesBeat. “While custom and campaign co-op games are peer-hosted. As an emergency contingency in matchmaking, the game is designed to fall back to traditional peer-hosted gameplay in the event that there are connectivity issues with the dedicated servers.”
Players on the Halo Waypoint forums started voicing concerns this week that The Master Chief Collection doesn’t use dedicated servers, but the chances are that those connections simply weren’t available due to heavy use from the community.
Microsoft elaborated on why some players might get a peer connection instead of a dedicated one.
“This can happen for a variety of reasons,” said Microsoft’s spokesperson. “[This includes] intermittent unavailability of dedicated servers, poor ping times to the dedicated server datacenters, or network configuration issues that prevent users from being able to access the dedicated servers.”
These problems are usually more rampant during the first few weeks after a game launches. Once the demand starts to lessen, the experience should improve.
Halo has had a lot of trouble since its debut. Players have complained of long matchmaking waits, and developer 343 Industries has deployed a couple of patches on its servers to improve the performance. Things are slowly getting better, buy many gamers are still having difficulties getting into matches.
“The 343 team continues to work around the clock to provide ongoing improvements to the experience for Halo: The Master Chief Collection,” reads the Halo website. “Thank you for the ongoing patience and support.”