Halo's bombastic big team battles may someday get a whole lot bigger, according to one developer who wants to see Halo: The Master Chief Collection's player cap of 16 pushed as high as 40 or 60.

   Traditionally, online multiplayer matches in the Halo franchise allow for a maximum of 16 players. 343 Industries, the studio behind Halo: The Master Chief Collection, may break this tradition soon. Infact, during an official Xbox live stream, 343 producer Sean Swidersky has confirmed that as well. "Halo is epic, and if we can add more people [...] to go higher than 16 people, hell, go up to 40, 60, that'd be wild," said Swidersky. So, Swidersky called the possibility of 60-player matches "wild", and he implied that achieving this goal lies well within the realm of possibility. However, he also noted that some technical challenges exist that could complicate the process of getting this feature to work. Adding more players makes it more difficult to maintain a consistent framerate. Doing so an older console presents even more challenges. 343 Industries could opt to up the player count on PC and current-gen consoles while implementing lower player counts for older consoles, as companies like DICE have done exactly this with their multiplayer games.

   With the possible exception of Reach's Forge World, Halo's maps are pretty dinky- with even the larger ones only built for may be 24 players, tops. Sandtrap with 16 players feels manageable. The same map with 60 angry Spartans would be uncontrollable chaos. But support for 60 players would be a boon for the game's modding community, incentivising more massive, Battlefield-sized maps like Extinction.

   Halo Infinite probably isn't getting a battle royale. But if 343 does follow through with bumping up the MCC's player cap, modders might just give us one instead. In a gaming landscape where large-scale battle royales like Fortnite are all the rage, it makes sense for 343 Industries to pursue higher player counts for its projects. Many players will no doubt become excited at the prospect of Halo: The Master Chief Collection accomodating 60 players, so hopefully, 343 Industries can deliver on that idea.