Master Chief Collection Xbox One Bundle Announced

Microsoft revived the bundle deal for gamers potentially considering buying into an Xbox One, this time the deal features a white Xbox One that comes with a digital download code for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, all for $349.99.

The announcement was recently made on the Xbox news wire website, where it was stated that this bundle deal will only be available for a limited time in North America. The bundle will be available at participating retailers and according to the site they will only be available in limited supplies. It's kind of like a “hurry and buy now!” sort of deal.

The $349, Cirrus White Xbox One bundle with Halo: The Master Chief Collection is set to go live at the end of May, perfectly timed to help bolster sales for a strong finish on the NPD charts for May and a nice good head-start on the sales leading into June, just before E3.

I'm a little shocked that Sony and Nintendo haven't been a lot more dedicated in competing with Microsoft when it comes to price-cuts and bundle deals, especially Nintendo. Then again, if you look at the regional charts Sony is leading the world around and even has a leg up on Microsoft in the home territory of America. Nintendo also has control of the far east territories and is leading in Japan. And while Japan isn't as big a territory in the games market as Europe or the Americas, it's still an important sector that has been giving the Big 'N' some strong leeway when it comes to racking up points in quarterly profits; and at the end of the day, if a company is profiting they're doing something right.

Microsoft is the only one out of the big three that doesn't have dominate control of one of the three big key territories, so it looks like Phil Spencer and crew are working really hard to bolster the appeal of the Xbox One in the U.S., to at least win back control from Sony, but it's going to be a long, hard battle to do so.

Bundling in a free digital copy of Halo: The Master Chief Collection might be a decent way of winning over some of the hearts and minds of gamers who haven't already picked up a copy. And even I have to admit that at the $350 price point with a free digital copy of Halo it looks awfully tempting, even if you're a Nintendo or Sony fan.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection definitely had some troubles early in its launch due to multiplayer sever stability, or rather instability. The game required some serious patchwork for months on end to help with the matchmaking, something that troubled the game enough that a recent e-sports tournament had to be canceled due to the matchmaking going wonky on them.

As far as the single-player goes... Halo: The Master Chief Collection contains all the major games that star John 117 the Master Chief. This includes the remastered version of Halo: Combat Evolved, an anniversary edition of Halo 2 with remade cinematic sequences by Blur Studios, and both Halo 3 and Halo 4. Due to the troubles associated with the matchmaking issues, Microsoft and 343 also gave away free campaign DLC for Halo 3: ODST for Halo: The Master Chief Collection owners.

Gamers who don't own the latest Halo title or an Xbox One can look to grab them in a bundle at the end of the month.