Halo The Master Chief Collection launched on PC about a year and a half ago, in December 2019. It was Microsoft's first real attempt at reintroducing the franchise to PC gamers after many installments that only released on Xbox consoles.
Now, Microsoft's General Manager of Global Games Publishing and World's Edge Studio Head Shannon Loftis confirmed to PCGamesN that the game registered over 10 million players since its PC launch. She then added that most of those were actually new to the IP.
We have been kind of methodically and systematically expanding our game development capability for PC, both with our existing and established franchises and also by adding brilliant studios that focus on PC forward gaming.
Then, for instance, we released Halo Master Chief Collection on Steam in 2019 and we have over ten million people who have played the game since we’ve released it on Steam and Windows. Most of those people are new to the franchise. And so, we discovered a whole new cache of Halo fans that we wouldn’t otherwise have gotten to reach if we hadn’t released on Steam, and on Windows, and on Game Pass.
Game Pass has undoubtedly played a pivotal role in Halo The Master Chief Collection reaching this critical mass of players. The game could even get a graphics overhaul via ray tracing, though that's still being evaluated by the developers.
Most importantly, though, 343 Industries used it to get acquainted with the PC community and understand their needs ahead of Halo Infinite. The highly anticipated game is now set to launch this Fall, one year after the original release date, and will feature a 'premiere PC gaming experience' with Ultrawide (21:9 aspect ratio) and Super Ultrawide (32:9 aspect ratio) support, triple keybinds, a wide variety of advanced graphics and control options, and full crossplay/cross-progression with the Xbox versions powered by input-based matchmaking.
