The Halo: Master Chief Collection is out today, and gamers who buy it will also get access to the Xbox One exclusive Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta when it becomes available later this year.

Making good use of the opportunity to talk more about the franchise, Halo studio 343 Industries has also announced that the beta will run at 720p and 60 frames per second. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of resolution compromises for Microsoft’s latest gaming console, and at first blush it appears not to bode particularly well for the next big Halo game.

But don’t despair, Halo fans, that is subject to change. Josh Holmes, the studio head in charge of Halo 5: Guardians has confirmed to Eurogamer that the 720p resolution is just for the beta, allowing the developers to focus on polishing gameplay, which is essentially the point of getting the beta into fans’ hands early.

He wasn’t even remotely ambiguous about the game’s graphical future. He said 720p “is not the final resolution for the game. You can imagine as we go through the remainder of the project we’ll be focused on polishing the visual look of the game. You can expect it will look amazing when it comes out.”

Halo enthusiasts can look forward to getting their hands on the Guardians multiplayer beta from the 29th of December; it will run for three weeks and they will have full access to three game modes and seven maps. The full game is only expected to be out in late 2015, so there’s still plenty of time for 343 to apply the polish necessary to make Hale 5: Guardians as attractive and playable as possible.

[Source – Eurogamer, Image – 343 Industries]