The South By SouthWest (SXSW) 2019 event is fast approaching, and while it isn’t particularly known for video gaming news, lot of developers have used it in recent years to showcase upcoming IP’s and reveals. 343 Industries is the next company to use SXSW as their stage when they host the Halo Championship Series Invitational from March 15-17. In addition to the tournament, the developer also hints that they will have some big news to share with us in regards to Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
The announcement was posted on the Halo Waypoint page, where 343 teased the reveal, “If you are not able to make it, be sure to tune in to mixer.com/Halo and twitch.tv/Halo each day at 12PM CT. Not only will you be treated to amazing matches and gameplay, but we’ve also got some exciting MCC news to reveal during the show.” No further information was given, but that certainly hasn’t stopped speculation as to what it could be.
One of the most requested things that fans have been asking for is full PC port of Halo: MCC. This would have more than likely been released already if it weren’t for the multiplayer matchmaking issues the company ran into when the game first launched in 2014, and necessitated almost 5 years of patches and updates. Another possibility is that there will be an update to add a Halo 3 Anniversary edition to the game in the same way they made Halo 2 Anniversary when it originally came out. But the biggest and most probable announcement could be the inclusion of maybe the best story ever told in the Halo franchise, Halo: Reach.
Reach was the last Halo game that Bungie developed before officially splitting with Microsoft and handing over the franchise to them in the process. Released in 2010 for the Xbox 360, the game was critically acclaimed and at the time was one of the biggest entertainment releases, eclipsing its predecessors. The game is already on backwards compatibility for the Xbox One, and it’s been a huge hit on there as well. It would make sense for 343 to finally bring Reach into MCC and give it a high-definition remake.
While this is exciting, some fans might be wondering about the status of Halo: Infinite, which has had little to no information since E3 2018. At this point. we wouldn’t expect 343 to reveal anything until E3 2019, as it seems to be a better platform to make more announcements with anyway. Still, we’re very excited to see what they announce at SXSW in March, as anything new for the Halo franchise is always a thrilling moment.