The SWAT playlist for Halo: The Master Chief Collection‘s matchmaking mode has returned. No need to download and install an update to hop in, however, as 343 Industries has re-introduced the playlist via a server-side update. Just fire up the Xbox One title and you’ll see SWAT as the game’s featured playlist.

Currently, SWAT is limited to Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 2 Classic, and Halo 4, though 343 explains in a blog post on the Halo website that it is “making investments to include Halo 3 in the game type rotation for a future update.” There’s no indication yet as to when that may happen, however.

343 added that it plans to bring back other playlists in the future, including Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 4, Team Hardcore, Team Doubles, Team Snipers, and others to be announced later. In all cases, 343 says it will monitor voting data and player feedback to determine which playlists are kept in rotation.

These playlists were purposefully removed following The Master Chief Collection’s troubled launch in November in an effort to improve the overall matchamking experience, something 343 continues to work on. In addition to adding SWAT back into the mix, today’s playlist update tweaks the following:

• Updated the player count to 4v4 (6 minimum, 8 maximum) for the following playlists:
  • Team Slayer
  • Halo 2 Classic
  • Halo 3
  • Halo Championship Series
  • SWAT

• Updated voting options across multiple playlists to improve the balance of appearance of BR-start and objective game types.

• Updated the “max party size” for Big Team Battle from 4-6, and the team is working on resolving issues that are affecting parties with 8 players. Once resolved, the max party size will return to 8.

• In a future update, the ranked Halo 2: Anniversary playlist will be moved to 4v4. For now, as the playlist contains a variety of mid-size maps, we’ll be temporarily allowing both 4v4 and 5v5 matches, but have optimized the voting options for this player range. For example, you’ll see less 5v5 Team Slayer BRs on Warlord and more voting options that are catered to the current player counts of 4v4 and 5v5 (8 minimum, 10 maximum). Additionally, you’ll now be able to search as a party of 5. These changes are temporary until we turn ranking online for additional playlists.

Finally, 343 said the next major content update for The Master Chief Collection is scheduled to go live early next week. Details about what’s coming through the patch will be announced “in the near future.”

Are you happy to see SWAT return? Let us know in the comments below!

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