Last Week Today: Week 51, 2014

This week Bonnie Ross — Head Developer for 343 Industries — told fans how they are planning to address "the matchmaking issues and other bugs impacting players’ experience with Halo: The Master Chief Collection" so they can "make this right." This means gamers who have logged in online since launch to the announcement — so between November 11th, 2014 to December 19th, 2014 — will receive sometime later this month:

• 1 Month of Xbox Live Gold
• Exclusive In-Game Nameplate
• Exclusive In-Game Avatar

These items are a one-off and will not be available again, so anyone who misses out will do so forever. Additionally the following items will be available in the future once developed:

• Halo 3: ODST Campaign
• "Relic" Halo 2: Anniversary Multiplayer Map

"Both projects were not part of our original development plans, but as a result of community feedback, and to do something special for our fans, both are now in development" an FAQ page setup by 343 Industries said. The Halo 3: ODST Campaign will not come with the Firefight multiplayer mode — which makes sense as they explicitly announced the campaign — with a release date in Autumn (U.S. Spring) 2015.

Rockstar announced the GTA Online Festive Surprise, a collection of free Christmas-themed freebies and updates for its fans. There are snowballs, new rocket launchers, vehicles, clothes, fireworks for New Years Day, and Christmas gifts available in the inventory on December 25th. They also told fans via their Rockstar Newswire that while they are not planning to leave last-gen consoles behind "there may be a point where we reach the limits for the previous generation of consoles as there may be some updates that are only technically possible on the new hardware." PC gamers will be happy to know they can transfer their console character. So if you "already transferred your progress from PS3 or Xbox 360 to either PS4 or Xbox One, then you will still be able to do another transfer again from PS4 or Xbox One to PC." Lastly, Rockstar provided more details about GTA Online Heists via an interview with IGN, and also released a trailer.

Valve may be Region Locking game gifting according to a Reddit post due to the recent issues with the Russian Ruble, although they are yet to confirm. They also banned the game Hatred as confirmed by Destructive Creations Facebook post. However, the next day they again confirmed via Facebook that Valve's Gabe Newell sent an apology and confirmation that the game will be re-instated. A redesign of the Steam Controller may have leaked with the latest Steam Client Beta update. Oh, and the Steam Holiday Sale 2014 arrived, so if you feel like hating your wallet until January 2nd, 2015, here is your chance.

Xbox released two new apps for the Xbox One, Pandora and Vevo. Ok, they announced five but as usual three are U.S. only, so that is no interest to us. A leaked version of Windows 10 build 9901 appeared online, and many screenshots were taken showing a new Xbox App for Windows 10. Australian Xbox One game servers were announced with new Azure Datacentres for Sydney and Melbourne with "lightning quick connection speeds, centralised local hosting and improved reliability on certain Xbox One games with further title support coming soon" according to Microsoft. Xbox outsold PlayStation 4 in the U.S. and U.K. in November. Microsoft might be working on a streaming game and app service with their "Arcadia" team while another team is also working on a VR Headset?

Quick Shots

After fumbling the launch of Assassin's Creed: Unity, the free game offer is now available. As special thank you after three patches now, Assassin's Creed: Unity gamers on the Xbox One skipped the fourth patches 6.7GB download size and got to download all 40GB instead. Telltale and Mojang are joining forces for Minecraft: Story Mode. Humble Bundle raised US$50 million for charity. Transformers Universe is shutting down, with many not even knowing it was open. Another developer thinks the tiresome 2014 trend of ports is the "JACKPOT". Kerbal Space Program moved from alpha to beta expanding on bases, buildings, contracts, and more. Sony loses its motion to dismiss the complaint about Killzone and its not-quite-1080P multiplayer graphics prowess. Finally, Pac-Man, who got not only has his statue at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid, but is also getting an official a Pac-Man inspired restaurant coming to Chicago in early 2015.