14 DAY TRIAL // The developers at 343 Industries in charge of Halo 5: Guardians say that they have plans to introduce an unranked set of playlists for the Arena multiplayer mode to make sure that even gamers who lack a major competitive streak will be able to enjoy it in the following months.
The announcement comes from Josh Holmes, the leader of the team working on the new Spartan-powered shooter, who explains on the Team Beyond forums that his company did not have an insidious motivation when they chose to make the experience all ranked.
He adds, "That was the design intent of the team working on that experience. That said, we've heard the requests, and we are actively working towards supporting unranked playlists for Arena in a future update. It may seem straightforward on the surface but lighting up unranked play in Arena is not as simple as flipping a switch."
Fans have also been asking for more social playlists in the multiplayer side of Halo 5: Guardians, and those are also on the radar of 343 Industries.
A sizeable group of fans want to be able to play without worrying about overall rank and their Competitive Skill Rating.
The studio is not saying when it plans to implement unranked Arena gameplay, but a good bet is that it might arrive towards the start of 2016.
The company has probably already locked down the tweaks and additional content that will be delivered for Halo 5: Guardians in December.
343 Industries will continue to listen to fan feedback
Halo 5: Guardians has managed to achieve one of its main objectives by boosting the Xbox One to the top of the hardware sales chart for the month of October in the United States while taking the top position when it comes to software sales.
Now 343 Industries and Microsoft need to make sure that the game manages to stay interesting in the long term for those who have bought it and continues to generate more sales during the coming holiday period.
The first major content update for Halo 5: Guardians, called Battle of Shadow and Light, has been deployed earlier in the week and allows gamers to play Big Team Battle on four new maps and to use an extra 48 REQ cards, including some unique ones.
The involved companies have promised that all maps offered during the first year will be free to all members of the community.
The development team has also improved the Warzone experience with some gameplay tweaks and is delivering bans to all those who are abusing the game mechanics to gain a competitive advantage.
One of the reasons that Arena might lack unranked playlists is because 343 Industries designed it with competitive and eSports play in mind.
The mode will be used starting December to run the qualifying process for the World Championships, which will end with finals in March of next year.
The prize pool for the huge Halo 5: Guardians tournament is being augmented using some of the money that gamers are spending to pick up REQ packs.