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343 begins tuning Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer after 20 million beta matches played

The numbers are in for the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta and they're quite impressive. With that in mind, 343 is ready to begin work on tweaking the final product.

Ozzie Mejia

February 5, 2015 10:00 AM

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The Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta has come and gone. Today, Microsoft is touting the numbers, which are fairly impressive. The publisher is citing over 2.5 million hours and 20 million matches played in the three week period. That's all well and good, but since it's a beta, just how much has 343 Industries taken from all those hours logged? The studio is discussing how they've learned from the beta and outlining some of the changes that fans can expect with the final release.

343's Josh Holmes goes over the findings and proposed changes on Halo Waypoint. Look for Spartan Abilities to get adjusted to include faster base speed, quicker strafe acceleration, reduced top sprint speed, and a modified ground pound. Various weapons will be fine-tuned, with the new Hydra weapon getting some versatility tweaks, improved sniper rifle and DMR scope, and some other general bug fixes and adjustments.

Most interestingly, the overall presentation will get some tweaks. For example, the arena-style intros and outros will be adjusted for a more sportsmanlike tone. Meanwhile, the controversial "kill cams" and Spartan chatter will now become optional features. 343 will also use what they've learned to improve matchmaking, including when playing with parties, and issue stiffer penalties to rage quitters.

Halo 5: Guardians is set to release later this year. In the meantime, the numbers are out and can be seen below.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?