343 Industries is certainly determined to support the Halo 4 multiplayer community. In addition to the weekly updates and story videos that accompany the game’s Spartan Ops mode, it appears that map packs for more standard multiplayer modes are coming as scheduled.

Today 343 and Microsoft announced that the first Halo 4 map pack, Crimson, will be launching on December 10. The DLC will cose 800 Microsoft Points and contains three new maps: Wreckage, Harvest, and Shatter. Those who purchased the Halo 4 map pass or purchased the Limited Edition version of the game will be able to download the DLC as soon as it is available. Two more map packs will be released in February and April.

Wreckage is a medium-sized, asymmetrical map created for objective gameplay. It’s styled as a crash site, with debris littering the landscape.

Harvest is a small to medium sized map created for Capture the Flag gameplay. Its name comes from Halo backstory as the planet where humans made first contact with the Covenant.

Shatter is a large, symmetrical map made for tooling around on vehicles. The UNSC mining facility it is set in allows up to 16 players to compete in Infinity Slayer.

Shatter was also created with a new multiplayer mode, Extraction, in mind. The new mode features two teams of 5 players racing to plant a beacon and protect it for a certain amount of time. Extraction will show up in Halo 4 matchmaking alongside the Crimson map pack on December 10.