Big Free Halo 5 Expansion Out Now, Watch the Launch Trailer

[UPDATE] Halo 5's Monitor's Bounty update is out now. Check out the launch trailer below.

A lot of changes have been made to ranked and social playlists, too; read about those here.

The original story is below.

As suspected, 343 Industries today officially announced the next free expansion for Halo 5: Guardians.

Called "Monitor's Bounty," the DLC includes new Warzone maps and more weapons (like the grenade launcher from Halo: Reach), as well as a custom game browser and an Observer mode that provides robust tools for watching custom games.

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The custom game browser will finally provide the ability to locate and join in-progress custom games (privacy settings can be used to keep matches private). "We've also updated the content browser so that if you find a map or mode that you like, you'll be able to browse for in-progress custom games from that file's options," explained UX design lead Vincent Hui in a blog post.

"This custom games browser is something the team has wanted to add for a long time for the community, but we needed the content browser and the search engine that powers it up and running first. Thanks for being patient, and we hope you enjoy it whether you’re running Duck Hunt 24/7, or just looking for new friends to slay!"

With the custom game browser coming to not just Xbox One, but also PC, computer players now have access to the "entire" Forge and Arena experience, according to 343.

In terms of paid content, the previously announced Voices of War Req pack is up for grabs. This comes with three new multiplayer announcers, including Edward Buck, who is voiced by actor Nathan Fillion, 031 Exuberant Witness, and Yabda the Merciless. The pack costs $10, whereas everything else in this update is free.

Additionally, just in time for the holidays, the update adds the ability to gift purchased Reqs to your friends. To encourage people to try this, everyone will receive a Req pack that can only be gifted to someone else.

More details on this update--including changes to Forge, Arena playlists, and Warzone--will be detailed tomorrow, December 7. We'll also be hearing more about all of the new Req items on the way, which you can see in the image below. The gif above shows off the Inevitability assassination.

343's ongoing support for Halo 5 has been impressive. The game launched in October 2015, and new expansions, all of which have been free, were released on a monthly basis until June.

Monitor's Bounty is Halo 5's ninth free expansion; it follows 2015 expansions including The Battle of Shadow and Light and Cartographer's Gift, as well as 2017's Infinity's Armory, Hammer Storm, Ghosts of Meridian, Memories of Reach, Hog Wild, and Warzone Firefight.