Okay, so I work nights, and upon leaving my shift at 10pm today, checked my phone, like you do after work, and saw the news about the mea culpa Microsoft is doing by giving Master Chief Collection owners ODST to make up for the continued nonsense. The catch being that you had to play it by the end of today. I thought this was super neat! The lack of ODST (and Reach, to a lesser extent) was one of the primary factors in me not picking up the collection. I'm not a big multiplayer guy, but I love Halo, and ODST happens to be my favorite game in the series, so I zoomed over to the store and bought the MCC on my way home.

So I got home at around 11. Awesome! More than an hour to spare. Put the disc in to fire the game up...but it had to install the disc. Okay, how long can that take? Well, that and you have to download the 15GB patch. As of this writing, it's 12:33, and the game is still installing, and I cannot launch it in any way. The release clearly says the ODST campaign (along with other goodies) will be available to all users who PLAYED it between November 11th and December 19th. So I think I'm out $45 with no ODST due to being locked out of the game because of how painfully slow the initial set-up is for disc based XBox One releases.

So three questions remain:

1. Do you think it will recognize that the disc was in place and the application began its instillation on the 19th, and thus give me the bonus features?

2. If not, do you think this is a situation where, if I call and complain, they'd just give it to me if I explained the scenario?

3. Am I a sucker?

Thank you for your time.

@johnj287: If you really wanna pursue it, you can probably message MS support and send them a scan of your receipt or something proving that you had the game before the deadline.

@liquidprince: Thanks for the tip. I had a similar idea, so I'll keep the receipt in the case.

Also, it's 1:44. Just about three hours since I got home with the intention of playing some Halo, and it's still installing.

It's starting to make more and more sense why my primary use for the XBox One is working out over playing videogames.

@johnj287: This freebie is an apology for fans who have been playing a broken game since launch to now, not a "get a free game because reasons" it's a "sorry we fucked up bad, please forgive us". You weren't one of those fans affected so I don't see why you should be entitled to the free stuff, complaining should get you nothing as its your own fault if you missed out. Harsh but true.

@vastaux: The game is still broken though. They still haven't fixed it.

Also the ODST campaign is way better than any of the mainline games and it should be added to the collection for everybody.

@vastaux: That's certainly one way of looking at it. However, I will say that the deadline was December 19th, and I would say that on December 19th, I experienced significant issues in an attempt to play the game. If you can't fit a third of the game on the disc and require a ungodly large patch to the point where I'm not even able to play it by the deadline passing, I'd say that counts. The attempt was made to play the game on December 19th, and the game's poor state would not allow me to.

And for those keeping score, it's 2:44 PM, and after leaving my XBox One on all night while the data loads, the install currently reads at 96%. So that's a solid sixteen hours between inserting the disc and being able to play it. Don't know about you guys, but I'd say that's a pile of garbage.

@corevi: Why is it better than the mainline games? Seems a ton of people on this site say so by saying "it's different and there's jazz!"

The open hub area that has crappy mission design like Destiny?

I played the game a bunch, but outside of Firefight it didn't do anything that's head and shoulders above the other games. The story has more characters, I suppose' but it's not really a well told tale.

What's the deadline? I ordered it on Amazon yesterday without knowing anything about this. It arrives Monday or Tuesday.

Oh, the 19th. I was too late anyway I guess. Oh well. Hopefully the multiplayer works by the time I'm done playing all of the campaigns (I've only ever played through Halo 2, the rest I know nothing about)

Bummer bro. Hope it works out. Keep that receipt so you can prove you had it in time. You have that and you have proof.

You'll be fine, I'm sure there will be a math bug in their script that gives out the free stuff.

@csl316: I really like the aesthetic of the game but also the mission design facilitated more tactical gameplay that was a ton of fun.

@corevi: Personally, I think ODST's greatest strength is that each mission has its own distinct feel. Looking forward to playing it again, it's been a few years.

If I were a Microsoft support person I'd be sympathetic but it's hard to say just how strict they'll be. The installation is not really an issue with Halo: MCC but rather the Xbox One in general (mandatory copying of physical disc content for every game), coupled with a launch day patch for pretty much any big title.

The huge patch is because the game has been a mess from day one... which comes back around to why Microsoft is giving away DLC that they can charge $10-15 for down the line.

Holy shit do you have terrible Internet.

So wait...the Master Chief Collection is still pretty broken right? Seems to me that as long as it doesn't work as intended they should give purchasers these things. Just my opinion, but hey I don't expect Microsoft/343i to actually do right by the majority of its consumers.