Halo: The Master Chief Collection has begun experiencing some major matchmaking issues due to the massive influx of players on launch. Players have reported that they are totally unable to join matches and find other players, with many waiting for hours at a time. The game officially launched last night and with many players having pre-loaded the game the servers got hit right away. The issues have persisted all night and into this morning, with an official notice being placed on the Xbox Live Status page which reads “Xbox members, are you having a tough time matchmaking in Halo: The Master Chief Collection? As you read this message, we’re working with our external partner to correct this issue right away. We appreciate your patience in the meantime! We’ll update you again when we have more information.”
As you read this message, we’re working with our external partner to correct this issue right away.
Matchmaking utilizes dedicated servers to facilitate online play, but custom games do not. This means that players are still able to connect to each other and play multiplayer, but without matchmaking they have to manage it all themselves.Single player campaigns are also unaffected by the problem, so players might want to take some time to explore the history of Master Chief. This certainly isn’t an ideal solution though, as online rankings are handled by matchmaking as well. Players will simply have to wait until player numbers drop, or Microsoft and 343 can work out the current problems.
Launch day issues are almost becoming a right of passage these days with nearly every major release seeing some type of problem due to player capacity. As more and more features are hosted online, along with more players buying digitally allowing immediate access at midnight, these problems will only get worse until something major shifts in the way online is handled.
While you wait feel free to check out our review of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
