Well this sucks, but I don't trust them, especially after the Halo Anniversary debacle.
The whole reason I was excited for Spartan Assault coming to Steam was because there was a much larger chance of seeing other Halo ports being ported as well.
What the hell is the point of porting a game like Spartan Assault, which is already available in the Metro store, to Steam? The only reason I can see for it was because of horrid sales numbers on other venues.
This is extremely disappointing if true. Halo 2 Anniversary better be real though, or I'm pretty much done getting my hopes up in the world of Halo.
Not that I wouldn't prefer to have Halo on Steam, but if Microsoft is trying to promote and get more users to use their own app store, it makes very little sense for them to release a Halo game on Steam when it's precisely the type of product that would attract new users to their own store.
No PR person is going to randomly announce a series of high profile releases. Asking a company "Hey do you want to tell us stuff you haven't announced yet?" is always going to result in the reply "Not at this time." This is like the flip-side of asking a developer "Hey will you ever do a sequel to your game XYZ?" and the developer responds "You never know!"
It's not about bringing the new entries to PC, this is about releasing Halo games with previously existing PC ports on Steam.
That would not cannabalize console sales at all.
neither Halo or Halo 2 are available on digital distribution and they both need work, though the latter significantly more so.
GFWL is shutting down in July, Microsoft promised their answer to what was to be done with Halo 2 in early 2014. Spartan Assault's Steam release, continued development of AoE II/AoM, and Ms. splosion Man's GFWL removal gives me confidence that we will see a Steamworks version of Halo 2 at the very least.
Though they might as well throw in Halo 1/3 to earn some more brownie points.
I would bet everything I have you won't see halo 2 on Steam this year. They are expected to release halo 2 anniversary on xb1 this year. To make the game available on PC undermines that effort to use the game to sell more consoles.
No PR person is going to randomly announce a series of high profile releases. Asking a company "Hey do you want to tell us stuff you haven't announced yet?" is always going to result in the reply "Not at this time." This is like the flip-side of asking a developer "Hey will you ever do a sequel to your game XYZ?" and the developer responds "You never know!"
Port begging? Halo and Halo 2 are already on PC. And with the SteamDB subs listing Halo 1, 2 and 3; along with them releasing Spartan Assault on Steam? Yeah, this isn't port begging. This is, "Yo, we know you might be bringing the Halo Trilogy to Steam at some point. When ya gonna announce it?"
Yeah if they have plans to rerelease the 360 games on xbone i can't see steam ports coming any time soon. Even if they know they would make way more money having it on both steam and xbone, it's all about getting people onto the console platform.
Could be wrong though, money is money and anyone with a brain would wager halo1/2/3 would be top of the steam best selling chart.
I don't think they have any intention of porting the other Halo games to PC.
They don't want anything to compete with the xbox platform. The fact that Halo 2 (and possible 3/Reach) are getting Xbone ports actually minimizes the chance that we are getting PC versions.
The "ease" of the ports is irrelevant if MS does not want to.
The first Halo was ported to PC/Mac because of contractual obligation. Halo 2 was ported for purely strategic reasons (pushing Windows Vista), and SA is a mobile game already available on Windows 8.
They want to use these games to sell Xboxes, not to make some money on Steam.
That said, I really want a PC version of Halo 3/Reach.
The best strategy hear is to ignore the fact they ever said anything and not focus on the Halo trilogy coming to PC. If it happens it happens, it's not worth dwelling on.
I've moved on, Microsoft. I've found someone else. They love me and I love them. And we have an open relationship. You can drink yourself into a stupor and livestream your Kinect videos for all I care.
The best strategy hear is to ignore the fact they ever said anything and not focus on the Halo trilogy coming to PC. If it happens it happens, it's not worth dwelling on.
I'm a bit rusty on the details, but Bungie had a large pc and mac following. Many of these people very a bit angry when they let MS buy them out. Bungie had announced the game at Macworld in 99 or 2000 and essentially promised pc/mac users the game.
Bungie demanded to be able to launch Halo CE (but only halo CE) on PC and Mac at a later date. Bungie was in dev hell with halo 2 so Gearbox ended up doing the port.
Fun fact: Gearbox remade the game to be more mod-friendly and gave away the MP portion with mod tools for free if you had a valid CD-Key. Gearbox paid for this themselves.
(google Halo Custom Edition)
It's not about bringing the new entries to PC, this is about releasing Halo games with previously existing PC ports on Steam.
That would not cannabalize console sales at all.
neither Halo or Halo 2 are available on digital distribution and they both need work, though the latter significantly more so.
GFWL is shutting down in July, Microsoft promised their answer to what was to be done with Halo 2 in early 2014. Spartan Assault's Steam release, continued development of AoE II/AoM, and Ms. splosion Man's GFWL removal gives me confidence that we will see a Steamworks version of Halo 2 at the very least.
Though they might as well throw in Halo 1/3 to earn some more brownie points.
While I think bringing Halo 1-3 was definitely in the works at one point, I think that's long been removed from the agenda. I find it far more likely that they're keeping Halo 2's servers up until Halo 2 Anniversary comes out, at which point they'll say "buy an Xbone if you want to continue playing Halo 2 MP."
They want the X1 to sell. No sense in competing with themselves by putting their big exclusives on PC also.
If they wanted to go that route, they should just stop making Xbox consoles and put out their own Steam box, or windows gaming machine that's more htpc than console, rather than having an in between box like the X1.
This. It's easy to hide behind PR speak when, in hindsight, you can refer to everything literally. What's Frankie going to do when Halo 3 release on the PC? He can't hide behind "It was technically true" because he categorically ruled it out. Oh, and... wouldn't "Halo stuff" apply to, you know, Spartan Assault?
Microsoft's solution to Halo 2 shutting down is going to be the Halo 2 Anniversary announcement in June... They want you to buy a Xbox One. Having Halo 2 revived on Steam months before they re-release it on Xbox One? No way.
Microsoft's solution to Halo 2 shutting down is going to be the Halo 2 Anniversary announcement in June... They want you to buy a Xbox One. Having Halo 2 revived on Steam months before they re-release it on Xbox One? No way.
I don't really see the rerelease of a game that came out almost a decade ago as competition for a potential Halo 2 Anniversary release on the Xbox One.
The whole selling point of the Anniversary series is revamped textures/models. The demographic Microsoft squarely targets for the One is not going to be interested in playing a 'old' game with no improvements.
Halo 2 PC is going to be dead entirely in a month. People are no longer going to have access to downloading their games or playing online. Microsoft is preparing something to deal with that wave of negative PR.
I don't really see the rerelease of a game that came out almost a decade ago as competition for a potential Halo 2 Anniversary release on the Xbox One.
The whole selling point of the Anniversary series is revamped textures/models. The demographic Microsoft squarely targets for the One is not going to be interested in playing a 'old' game with no improvements.
Halo 2 PC is going to be dead entirely in a month. People are no longer going to have access to downloading their games or playing online. Microsoft is preparing something to deal with that wave of negative PR.
Are they really going to get any bad PR? Game servers shut down all the time, the PC cummunity contantantly lashes out @ MS. Plus this backlash will be minor vs the Halo 2 XBL shutdown.
You honestly think the people interested in Halo 2 PC aren't also interested in H2:A?