343: Halo Collection's launch patch negates a second disc

Following outrage at a 20GB day-one update planned for the upcoming Halo: The Master Chief Collection, head of Halo franchise development Frank O'Connor took to NeoGAF to defend the design decision.

According to O'Connor, that 20GB of data is not a fix for in-game issues, but is instead game content that would have otherwise required that the game ship on multiple Blu-ray discs. "The game is designed to run as a single, unified product, digital is seamless obviously, but we also wanted disc users to have the same experience, without swapping discs," O'Connor told one irate fan. He then added that a title update (read: patch) would be included in the 20GB update, but that it is a "tiny fraction" of the total download. "We realize that this isn't ideal for everyone, but it's the path to the smoothest eventual experience."

While we won't know for sure what's included in the update until it arrives, O'Connor's claim that the game was simply too large to fit on one disc has merit. As we've explained, Halo: The Master Chief Collection includes remastered versions of the first four Halo games, as well as over 100 multiplayer maps.

[Image: Microsoft]