Halo ‘Digsite’ Team to Deliver Forgotten Content in Upcoming Master Chief Collection Update

A year has passed since 343 Industries announced a team-up with the Halo modding community to sift through the scrapped pieces of the Halo franchise. The ‘Digsite’ team promised to bring the recovered maps and models to the Master Chief Collection, and it looks like they’re going to follow through with their promise.

The update will have been worth the wait as the team has gutted open projects dating back to 1999 to find salvageable material. Some ready-to-ship assets didn’t even get a name before being cut from releases! This is big news for Halo fans since the upcoming update will feature nearly two dozen playable maps, multiple weapons, 3D reticles and so much more.

Overdue Halo: Master Chief Collection update to feature maps from Halo and Halo 2

The Digsite Release 1 update will feature two multiplayer maps from Halo PC recovered from the many Milestone builds the team excavated. The maps, ‘Underground’ and ‘Abyss,’ are revamps of ‘Indoor’ and ‘Dusk’ that never made it into the 2001 release. Deeper into exploring their archive catacombs, Digsite found early revisions of Halo 2 and Xbox and Vista assets that never saw the light of day.

The highly anticipated update will take Halo down memory lane with its 21 ‘Halo 2’ maps, all of which are playable in the Master Chief Collection. The game is also about to see a flood of community-made maps since the update will give modders access to vehicles, weapons, creatures, and even a 3D holographic reticle.

Modders to access pre-release weapons, vehicles, and creatures

Halo’s modding community is about to get its hands on pre-release Halo: Combat Evolved weapons. The Digsite team recreated many of these weapons from scratch for the update, though some of them are not rigged for first-person use. The new MA-5 assault rifle is an homage to Marathon and comes with a grenade launcher variant. We’ll also get to see the MP-99 SMG with a futuristic holographic sight on it as opposed to the old-school 2D HUD layers.

In the far reaches of Halo’s archives were files from Halo’s development in 1998-1999. The recovered vehicles include a Forerunner tank and a UFO repping the proto-Covenant. Modders will get Blender versions of these armored vehicles and the freedom to develop them further. Baddies and creatures from the third-person era of the franchise are about to birth some exciting additions to Halo — all thanks to 343 Industries’ commitment to game preservation.