Second, H5 multiplayer will be abandoning armor abilities in favor of a level playing field. They didn't need the MCC to gather this info, just 5 years of hearing players complaining about armor abilities.

Third, why have the beta so early after the release of MCC? While I commend their efforts for producing a beta, I feel they may be sacrificing long-term data in favor of short-term. Player longevity was a clear problem with H4, is seven weeks enough to gauge longevity and adjust the beta accordingly?

Lastly, I get the feeling that 343i already knows the direction of H5 multiplayer, it has been reflected by recent their hiring decisions. Which makes the "figuring out what kind of Halo multiplayer those players want" purpose of the MCC somewhat of a moot point to me. I don't recall them hiring any CoD pros.

My one fear is that may be focusing too much on gameplay decisions and totally avoiding the rest of the problems related to H4 mutliplayer. For example, the unintuitive UI, wonky lobby system, team-only voice chat, poor map design, and other things I can't quite remember. Quality Halo multiplayer wasn't just about the gameplay, it was also about the entire package.