343 Industries opened up about how crossplay will be implemented in Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
In a blog post, Technical designer Dana Jerpback stated that one of the ways the studio will implement crossplay is with input-based matchmaking for certain playlists. Here's everything else we know about crossplay in Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
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Crossplay in Halo: The Master Chief Collection
"We are looking at input-based matchmaking being implemented at the playlist level. This allows us to have more control on where we do and don’t separate players into sub-groups," Jerpback said.
This means players will get locked onto specific inputs, whether it be a keyboard and mouse or a controller. However, the team intends on tuning this over time in response to feedback.
Playlists like Infection and Firefight won't have input-based matchmaking, as those modes are cooperative as opposed to competitive. "We don’t believe that there is a need to lock players by input in these areas, so in those cases, players will get the full benefit of crossplay so anyone can play together, which is really great," Jerpback said. "This should help those player groups find matches more quickly and break down barriers between players on different platforms for those offerings."
Similar to the design in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, players will be locked by their input when they enter matchmaking, but this can be changed at any time when they're in the main menu. Additionally, you'll be able to see what other players are using in matchmaking lobbies.
Separating players could be troublesome for actually finding a match with your exact parameters, but 343 Industries has thought about that as well.
"We want to avoid a situation where there are three different separate populations searching," Jerpback said. "Having a mouse and keyboard only population, a controller only population, and an ‘all inputs possible’ population would split the population extensively and having them all searching the same playlist would drive up the time to match significantly. We’ll be able to tune which playlists require input locking based on search times and player feedback as well.
He continued, "Our goal is to break down the barriers of the platform and focus on input method instead so we can tune the experience more easily. We want players to be able to play with their friends and make the pool of players you can match with be larger within matchmaking instead of limit it."
It seems that 343 Industries are trying their best to implement crossplay in a way that makes everyone happy. However, this process might take a while, as we still don't have an official release date on crossplay implementation.
