Halo Reach is off to a great start for the Master Chief Collection, and fans will soon be able to begin testing for the next Halo title to release on PC. The developers have mentioned in the past they plan to work down the long list of games beginning with Halo: Combat Evolved next year, but a specific date for the title’s flight testing hadn’t been revealed. Now it has been revealed that if all goes according to plan, flight testing could begin sooner than expected for Combat Evolved.

The latest development update from 343 Industries details quite a few topics such as a recent string of bans against players trying to exploit the public multiplayer matches for XP farming, as well as possible future features that are being discussed within the studio like cross-play capability, Steam account linking, and more. The developer also brings news concerning the beginning of PC flight testing for Halo: Combat Evolved, stating that if the work on the current Halo: Reach continues on the same trajectory the team will be able to begin working on the next title sometime in January.

As we close the year out and start to look at what’s ahead of us in 2020, I wanted to give you an update on progress we’re making on the other games heading to MCC on PC. Right now, we have a good-sized army of developers working through different development streams to support our efforts across ongoing Reach updates and quality of life improvements in addition to Halo: CE Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, and Forge & Theater support (Reach first). Halo: ODST (Campaign) and Halo 4 are a little further out but rest assured they’re also coming to MCC on PC in 2020″

The update in development also reveals that the team is also working on support for both Forge and Theater support on PC, features that will be quite welcome onto the PC side of the title. The update didn’t mention anything about official support for mods, but developers have mentioned in the past that they would like to add in support eventually. Perhaps after the ball gets rolling a little further on the rest of the Master Chief Collection 343 Industries will be able to turn their attention to supporting the fan-created content beyond the franchise’s Forge mode.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is currently fully available for Xbox One while PC players only have Halo Reach at the moment.  Let us know your thoughts on the upcoming flight testing for Halo: Combat Evolved and more in the comments section below. As always don’t forget to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter for 24/7 coverage of all things gaming and entertainment.