This is where it gets weird. I was speculating all this maybe six months ago on /r/halo - ideally H3A would be tied into MCC just as 1A and 2A were, but MCC is still somewhat broken, so 343 could use their H3A budget and development time to fix MCC alongside it. Kill two birds with one stone.

So a few months later, I got a PM from someone on reddit, linking me to a separate Halo forum where a supposably reputable source was saying it's all in the works. H3A and rebuilt MCC. I'd link that, but the forum link is dead. But here's the PM I have. http://i.imgur.com/2Yrf3UB.png

Honestly it makes total sense to me even without that source. Everyone here is saying MCC screwed them, H3 is fine as is on MCC, not a huge leap in graphics between 360 and XO. Which is true. But they're forgetting H3A lines up with Scorpio and Halo 3 was the most popular in the series. That's a massive nostalgia bomb for a console launch and would pull Playstation users back to Xbox. Why wouldn't MS push for this? It's a huge potential audience if they do it right. If 343 actually fixed MCC's stability to service H3A, it would mean more Scorpio sales, more H3A sales, renewed faith in 343 from a lot of people who got burned on 4 and MCC before Halo 6. I don't buy they'll scrap the anniversary of H3 just because MCC was screwy. It's setting a foundation for Halo to be on top again.