Please Note!
*This post is purely a support post, highlighting what I believe to be a major issue with MCC online multiplayer, and to a lesser extent, Halo 5 online matchmaking.
*I have been advised by Xbox Support to post on the Waypoint forums, in order to bring this issue to the attention of 343i.
*I have also been advised via Halo Support to post on the forums in regards to this issue, as a result of previously submitted support tickets.
As my other previous account was banned from the forums in 2013, seven years ago, this account has been created solely for the purpose of accessing otherwise unavailable support from 343i in regards to this issue. As a consumer I am entitled to support for the product I have purchased, and as other support options have exhausted, this is the only option still available to me.
*Internet speeds are usually 28mbps down and 7mbps up, 0% packet loss, wired connection, Open NAT and latency through the Xbox multiplayer test is around 125 ms.
Post
This issue is well known and has been posted about on the forums multiple times by many players from across the world in regards to Halo 5 and MCC, both in the past and relatively recently.
The lack of a region or server selection option in MCC, and also Halo 5, directly impacts the online matchmaking experience of players who live in countries that do not have a large online population. As a result, these players such a myself, a resident of Australia, experience the vast majority of online games to be of a high and unacceptable latency. Typically, the lowest latency games available are on the West US servers, at approximately 150+ ms latency, and as a result most games are unenjoyable due being shot through walls, bloodshots, shots not registering, and other latency associated phenomena in the games.
Currently the server matchmaking system simply places players in a game, prioritising finding a game over connection. While this is perfectly suitable for higher populated regions, generally it is unsuitable for players who will experience high latency and likely less enjoyable games.
In these situations, players such as myself would much prefer the option to find lower latency games at the expense of longer search times and phigher skill gaps between matchmade teams, rather than high latency games where latency creates a less than ideal experience for said players. Also players are then further penalised if they quit due to high latency causing undesirable experiences, when this is no fault of their own and out of their control
Personally, most times I would prefer to wait and possibly find no game at all, rather than one I will likely no enjoy. I am sure there are a lot of other players who would agree with me on this also.
The simplest solution, and probably the most easily implemented, is to allow players to select the regions and servers that they wish to matchmake on, that is find games on servers with an acceptable latency according to player themselves.Normal matchmaking parameters would then be applied as per normal. for example, I would prefer to search for games on Australian servers, unless no games were found, at which point I would consider other servers. My point is that I would have at least had the chance to find a guaranteed game on the closest servers rather than being placed on a server I would prefer not to be on if possible.
This would allow all players the best possible chances finding low latency games for a batter online experience. Other titles on Xbox such as Battlefield, COD, Fortnite, and many others allow this option and in my experience, this makes for a much more enjoyable experience. Also consider that the 360 versions of Halo 3 and Reach had the option to search only for good connection games (that is low latency games) 10 years ago, yet this is no longer an option? Why? As a side note, also consider why HCS tournaments, and other gaming tournaments are played on LAN or extremely low latency servers, it is because lower latency provides a consistent and standardised platform for those games. Yet regular players simply do not even have that option available for online matchmaking?
From a consumer perspective, consumers around the world pay approximately the same price for the product (game) and access to the associated matchmaking servers (Azure servers, distinct from Xbox Live servers and membership), yet are receiving considerably different matchmaking experiences, outside of reasonable expectations due to geographical distancing, etc.Take an analogy of a car that is sold worldwide for a standard price everywhere, regardless of who buys it. However, say that all cars sold in one country are able to reach 100kmph, yet in another country they are only able to reach 70kmph due to manufacturer decisions only. Would this be considered fair? I highly doubt it, and from a legal perspective, almost certainly not.
Yet is this not very similar to what is happening here? Players in one part of the world, with acceptable quality internet speeds and connection, effectively forced to play under different conditions due to where they live, with no other options available, short of not use the product and service that they paid for?
This issue has been present since MCC launched in 2014, since Halo 5 was launched in 2015, and since MCC was rebuilt and relaunched in 2018. Why did 343 Industries not build in such a feature when rebuilding MCC, in order to make a more standard, better and enjoyable online gaming experience for all of its players? As mentioned before, there are many many post of these forums in regards to high latency for players outside of the US, where Azure servers and population are more limited. It is hard to believe that 343i are not aware of this issue at all, however they may simply underestimate how many players it truly affects?
Thankyou for reading this, I sincerely hope that this post has achieved the goal of bringing this issue to the attention of the 343i development team.
I hope that this issue is fixed as soon as is possible and in time for the release of Halo Infinite, to allow all players to have the best possible experience available to them.
Thankyou once again.