Halo is one of the biggest sci-fi game franchises out there. The support for the series continues to remain strong with new DLC announced for February and a new playlist this weekend for Halo 5.

Developer 343 Industries latest weekly blog post had a lot of information about changes to the game, along with other information about the upcoming Halo Wars 2. The studio reveled that the “Classic Helmet” DLC pack is aiming at a February 9th release. They caution that the date may change, due to the fluid nature of game development, and pricing has not been announced at this time. The DLC will come with 9 new helmets, shown below:

According to the 343 blog post, the “Warlords” playlist, which is now live and will run until January 30th. The new Halo 5 Warzone mode playlist is going to be a live test for 12-person rosters, which is a result of 343 being previously under fire for reducing the Fireteam size down to 6.   

This is being viewed as a test internally because frankly it may not be a great experience, especially if the population of pre-made 12-man Fireteams is low, resulting in longer-than-desired wait times for matchmaking. Still, we’re looking forward to rolling this out and seeing how larger teams respond and what the experience is like!

You will only be able to enter the matchmaking queue if you have a 12-person team. Players will have to make use of the ‘Looking for Group’ feature if they lack the 11 friends to play with. The developers went on to say in the post that the change to 6-person fireteams for Warzone has had a “positive effect” on Halo 5 and that there are no plans to revert it back to 12, except for this event. Additionally, everyone that plays Warlords this weekend will see an XP boost on their account.

The change to 6-person Fireteams has had a positive effect on Warzone results for a large majority of matches played and our current plan is to keep it in place and monitor as we do with every list we run. There is a very obvious problem with the limit of 6 though and that relates to the passionate fans in large clubs and companies who truly enjoy the coordinated tactics and team efforts that unfold when 12 Spartans blitz a goal together. Many of us here in the studio love and miss this as well. Hence Warlords. We don’t want to set back the improvements made with 6-person teams, nor do we want to lose the 12-person spectacle either.

Are you going to join in the fun with some friends? Do you miss the 12-person teams? Are you excited for the helmet pack? Sound off in the comment section below and tell us your thoughts! And don’t forget to check out the possibility of a kid-friendly Halo game for more Halo goodness!