Those gaining early access will get a head start to the rest of us who purchased the Master Chief Collection and will have to wait till December 29th to join in the fun.

The early preview beta will apparently only be a small taste of what we can expect from the actual beta. The full beta will be rotating a total of 7 maps and 3 different game modes during its beta run.

There still has been no additional word on other ways to gain access to the Halo 5 multiplayer beta. It looks like the purchase of the Master Chief Collection still is the only assured way for Xbox One owners to gain access. We will let you know if this changes at some point.