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[Grief.exe]

Source: https://twitter.com/DavidEllis/status/301374494252101632
Source: http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/13/halo-2-pc-multiplayer-support-extended/


Reference Thread: Truly Weird Stuff Showing Up in Steam Database (Halo, KOF13, other unlikely stuff)

Steam maintains a database of game content. New games are frequently leaked through this database, as games need to be added before they can be released. Recently we saw Brutal Legend appear.

Here's a tool to look at the Steam database:
http://cdr.xpaw.ru/

Today, some truly messed up stuff is showing up*:
La-Mulana
The Splatters
Octodad: Dadliest Catch Beta
Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition (Duke Nukem 3D+)
Super House of Dead Ninjas
Fez
LucasArts Test App
Fast and Furious 6
Lococycle
Yogventures!
Hardware
Hardware (Demo)
Dyad <-- officially announced by developer Feb 4, 2013
Cut the Rope
Shadow Warrior Complete
Hardware (VIP)
Hardware (Internal)
THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII
Retro/Grade
Resident Evil: Revelations
THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2002 UNLIMITED MATCH
THE KING OF FIGHTERS '98 ULTIMATE MATCH
Quantum Conundrum 2
Halo 3
Halo 2
Halo: Combat Evolved
The Witness
Angry Birds Space
Angry Birds Seasons
Second Life

Normally, you'd be all like "wtf, this is clearly not real", but...

Take Halo 3
http://cdr.xpaw.ru/app/216800/

The entry links to a Steam Community hub for Halo 3:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/216800/

You can see it right there, with your own eyes. This is a Steam URL with Halo 3 displaying in it.


Two possibilities:
1. Valve is adding support for Steam Community hubs for non-Steam games

2. Some or all of this stuff is coming out on Steam. We do know that The Splatters is getting a PC port. We do know that Fez is getting a port to new consoles, and that PC is the most likely console. We have seen a few previously GOG-exclusive titles get Steam releases, so it's possible that Duke 3d and Shadow Warrior might fit that pattern. We do know that Twisted Pixel intended PC versions of Ms. Splosion Man, so Lococycle might not be a stretch. We also know from an MS job posting that they were looking for staffers to evaluate more releases on Steam. We also know that GFWL is basically folded at this point, and that MS has actively worked to make non-GFWL versions of its games available through Steam (see recently the Amazon XBLA PC port pack, all of which activated on Steam).


* Many of the entries predate today, it's just that this particular tool has begun linking the Community Hub data to the database/registry data, and so the information is newly discovered.

Microsoft's Response:

"We currently do not have plans to release any 'Halo' titles on Steam," said a Microsoft spokesperson in response to our query.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...logy-fez-and-dyad-outed-on-the-steam-database

Really doesn't confirm or deny anything. Currently not having plans, doesn't rule out any kind of release.

MS PR decoding;
"we do not comment on rumour or speculation" = "fuck, how'd they find out?"
"we have nothing to say at this time / we do not currently have any plans" = "were not ready to announce this"
"Microsoft deny rumours / story [x] is based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment" = "not true in the slightest"

 

[speedpop]

I may finally get a chance to play through this vaulted series.

 

[Green Biker Dude]

it was pretty obvious that if they were going to include community hubs for non steam games, they'd choose either upcoming, recently released or popular games to begin with. halo 2 is none of those

 

[alexandros]

Yup, it does seem to point that way.

 

[iavi]

the leak was all about confirmed when The Bridge showed up on the store for pre-order with the exact same ID as shown in the leaked listing.

KOF, HALO, come to me.

 

[scitek]

So that tweet confirms they're looking to keep Halo 2's multiplayer up past June at the very least.

 

[Jtrizzy]

I want to buy this game just for the single player, but don't want to order a physical copy from Amazon. Why don't they at least sell it on GFWL? So strange to me. Also, why aren't all games that have the GFW DRM available in this store? I want X men origins wolverine.

 

[water1111]

I haven't seen Stumpokapow around recently, he's the one the made a topic with steam leaks right? maybe the Microsoft ninjas got to him.

 

[Orayn]

it was pretty obvious that if they were going to include community hubs for non steam games, they'd choose either upcoming, recently released or popular games to begin with. halo 2 is none of those

While this is true, a Steam release would cost Microsoft next to nothing and the sales would more than cover the costs of keeping multiplayer servers up. I don't think MS is averse to monetizing something that's been sitting idle for years, especially when it's part of a series that people recognize.

 

[Aaron]

There's no reason for Microsoft not to put the older games on Steam. Other than having to port Halo 3, it would be pure profit.

 

[Rickenslacker]

Even though Halo 2 PC has assy controls I wouldn't mind it and CE on Steam ASAP. 2 would benefit from a population boost because it had an awful launch, and CE would be great as I can't find my copy anymore.

 

[Polk]

ok so there's still time for me to get last multiplayer achievement? good

 

[Grief.exe]

I'm personally more excited about the possibilities of a Halo 3 port.

Halo 2 was such a garbage port, and I can never get the FOV fix to work right in CE. Halo 3 would be the perfect chance for Microsoft to nail the port and earn some profit from an older title.

 

[Orayn]

I'm personally more excited about the possibilities of a Halo 3 port.

Halo 2 was such a garbage port, and I can never get the FOV fix to work right in CE. Halo 3 would be the perfect chance for Microsoft to nail the port and earn some profit from an older title.

Also, it's so old that getting perfect performance would probably be trivial even with an obscene amount of visual add-ons. Think of the Dennis screenshots! AF! SGSSAA and MSAA! Oodles of AO! Maybe even SweetFX?

 

[JaseC]

I haven't seen Stumpokapow around recently, he's the one the made a topic with steam leaks right? maybe the Microsoft ninjas got to him.

Why would Microsoft's ninjas go after a person who made a thread about the registry listings and not the source itself?

 

[Persona7]

I remember rumblings about Microsoft games being released on gog after they made some huge licensing deal, nothing ever materialized and other companies were being rumored as well.

 

[water1111]

Why would Microsoft's ninjas go after a person who made a thread about the registry listings and not the source itself?

Hes' more high profile dude, maybe I should PM evilore and ask him, I wonder If he responds to PM's.

 

[fvng]

Smart move by Microsoft to get PC gamers to try the Halo series, and get them curious about Halo 4. Looks like ill finally get to play them.

(Hope Halo 1 is the remastered version)

 

[Grief.exe]

Also, it's so old that getting perfect performance would probably be trivial even with an obscene amount of visual add-ons. Think of the Dennis screenshots! AF! SGSSAA and MSAA! Oodles of AO! Maybe even SweetFX?

You posted this in the other thread so you already are aware, but for anyone else the Halo screenshot tool did some crazy stuff.

The tool takes the renders the image at some crazy resolution, then downsamples it. Game can look absolutely amazing. Even more so with AF, AA, AO, SweetFX, etc, all at 60+fps.

Why would Microsoft's ninjas go after a person who made a thread about the registry listings and not the source itself?

Conspiracy.

 

[Orayn]

Also, I always loved the flow of Halo 3's combat and playing it at 60 FPS would be amazing for me.

Smart move by Microsoft to get PC gamers to try the Halo series, and get them curious about Halo 4. Looks like ill finally get to play them. Hope Halo 1 is the remastered version

Halo CE Anniversary? Probably not, since that uses the Saber3D engine. Porting it would likely involve some help form Saber and more work than Microsoft wants to commit.

 

[Blakersz]

I'm pretty sure that those community pages have been taken down, and that the steam support for the Halo series was denied.

Or maybe I'm just out of date with my information?

 

[Blablurn]

Would be awesome since i never played those games.

 

[Skab]

I await the flood of cynical "So that was it?" threads from people playing the series for the first time.

 

[Visualante2]

ODST would be a killer bonus for Halo 3.

 

[Grief.exe]

Some more sexy Halo 3 shots


I remember this map

I'm pretty sure that those community pages have been taken down, and that the steam support for the Halo series was denied.

Or maybe I'm just out of date with my information?

Go to Steam > Community > Game Hubs

Type in Halo, see what comes up.

Check OP, the Microsoft 'denial' was really PR speak for 'we don't want to talk about it yet'

 

[Jtrizzy]

So why are they selling it on Steam when they already have their own store to sell these games on? It seems like selling it on Steam is just an admission of failure for their own store.

 

[Lingitiz]

If Halo 2 and 3 were to release on Steam I would have no reason to ever buy a next gen Halo game. Hopefully it happens.

 

[water1111]

So why are they selling it on Steam when they already have their own store to sell these games on? It seems like selling it on Steam is just an admission of failure for their own store.

Why not on both stores with a Windows 8 requirement.

 

[Rawket Lawnchair]

Sold my PC copy of Halo 2 last week, never planning to go back (game is unbearable with today's standards). On the other hand the first game was pretty good, haven't played it for a few years now.

 

[Orayn]

Why not on both stores with a Windows 8 requirement.

Stump gave a really good explanation in the other thread about how that doesn't really fit Microsoft's philosophy any more.

 

[Proelite]

Halo 3 on Steam? Why not make it a Metro exclusive?

 

[Jtrizzy]

Why not on both stores with a Windows 8 requirement.

Yeah that's probably what they'll do. It just annoys me that there is no Halo game to digitally download, and a host of other older games that use GFWL drm. MUA, X Men Legends to name a few. Neither are anywhere to purchase digitally. I'm sure there are more I'm not thinking of.

 

[Grief.exe]

So why are they selling it on Steam when they already have their own store to sell these games on? It seems like selling it on Steam is just an admission of failure for their own store.

Check out Stumpkapow's comments in the OP, and in that thread. He brings up some really good points.

We also know from an MS job posting that they were looking for staffers to evaluate more releases on Steam.

We also know that GFWL is basically folded at this point, and that MS has actively worked to make non-GFWL versions of its games available through Steam (see recently the Amazon XBLA PC port pack, all of which activated on Steam).

Well,
- GFWL being wound down
- Capcom (#1 GFWL partner) switches to Steamworks
- Recent 1st party XBLA games ported to Steam
- Patching GFWL out of previous GFWL-Steam releases.
- The job posting I mentioned in the OP about exploring further releases on Steam

So, yeah, I feel pretty confident that even if Halo doesn't come to pass, there's something occurring with MS-Steam's relationship

A little update; I tried to trace the original dates of all of the database entries in the OP. Like I mention in the OP and in a number of replies, the "updates" today are from that site updating their data to link Community Hub data to registry data in order to match the names.

All of those OP entries do appear to be within the last year, for example the Halo entries were originally added in July 2012.

Halo entries July 2012

Fez was added October 31, 2012.

KoF XIII, which as you can see actually has a Steam community hub icon, not just a name--someone needed to produce a graphic for it--got added mid-October 2012.

Dyad got added mid-October 2012

Lococycle late October 2012

Retro/Grade mid November 2012

Quantum Conundrum 2 August 2012

RE: Revelations (which has a Community Hub Icon): October 2012

The Splatters Dec 2012

Hardware October 2012

La-Mulana Jan 23, 2012 (after being Greenlit)

I know some people have speculated "maybe these entries are just years and years old and long-abandoned". That's not the case. All of these were added in the relatively recent past; whether or not the releases occur, this was clearly an intentional thing. And since some of the entries pre-date Community Hubs, it seems hard to believe that they'd have the Community Hub data if it was the third-party Community Hub hypothesis.

This also pretty effectively refutes the "they wouldn't add these things because they know it'd be leaked"--some of this stuff has been there for 8 months without being uncovered. This is clearly an accidental disclosure. I wouldn't be surprised to see all the community hub data reverting to the hidden ValveTestApp stuff.

 

[JaseC]

I wonder if Gears of War PC will eventually make it to Steam. As I mentioned in the Steam thread, it strikes me as odd that Microsoft is apparently making the effort for Halo and even Rise of Nations but not for Gears. It's even packaged as a DD title on the GFWL Marketplace.

 

[InPlosion]

I still don't understand. Doesn't halo2 mp use a p2p protocol? By that definition, there should not be any servers to speak of, other than for login and user info storage purposes, right?
Definitely not dedicated servers.

Help me out here, I hear this "Shutting down servers" sentence tossed around too often, without grasping why there would be any.

 

[water1111]

Yeah that's probably what they'll do. It just annoys me that there is no Halo game to digitally download, and a host of other older games that use GFWL drm. MUA, X Men Legends to name a few. Neither are anywhere to purchase digitally. I'm sure there are more I'm not thinking of.

X-men Legends nor Marvel Ultimate Alliance have GFWL.

 

[Grief.exe]

I wonder if Gears of War PC will eventually make it to Steam. As I mentioned in the Steam thread, it strikes me as odd that Microsoft is apparently making the effort for Halo and even Rise of Nations but not for Gears. It's even packaged as a DD title on the GFWL Marketplace.

At least Gears is available for DD.

Halo: CE and Halo 2 are not available for download anywhere, and Halo 3 isn't even ported

Spoiler

yet

 

[secretanchitman]

excellent. will be nice to experience halo 3 on the pc at last.

 

[Bluth54]

I wonder if Gears of War PC will eventually make it to Steam. As I mentioned in the Steam thread, it strikes me as odd that Microsoft is apparently making the effort for Halo and even Rise of Nations but not for Gears. It's even packaged as a DD title on the GFWL Marketplace.

Microsoft did something new with Rise of Nations? Last I knew they added it to the Steam registry years ago but never released it.

I really hope it comes out on Steam, it's my favorite RTS.

 

[MysticX]

$10 for each game and it will sell in the millions I kid you not!

Halo 3 maybe $20, but the others at $10.

 

[Portugeezer]

I would buy it

 

[Grief.exe]

$10 for each game and it will sell in the millions I kid you not!

Halo 3 maybe $20, but the others at $10.

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft wasn't quite that generous, but those are fair prices.

 

[Sai-kun]

I'd straight up buy all three, despite owning them all (several times, in the case of Halo 1 and 2) already. Please, MS. Do it.

 

[SparkTR]

Honestly I wouldn't care much for a Halo 2/3 Steam release. Not that I'd be against them, I'd still buy them but it's not all that important to me. I do, however, want a Steam rerelease of Halo 1 PC, some of my fondest gaming memories were playing that online and I'd love for that to get a userbase boost.

 

[Aquamarine]

I'd straight up buy all three, despite owning them all (several times, in the case of Halo 1 and 2) already. Please, MS. Do it.

Same. I'd also be pining for ODST + Reach to make their way on Steam as well. It just seems fitting to have all of the Bungie Halo titles on PC.

 

[JaseC]

Microsoft did something new with Rise of Nations? Last I knew they added it to the Steam registry years ago but never released it.

I really hope it comes out on Steam, it's my favorite RTS.

Not something new, no: RoN Gold was added at the end of 2011 and it's a suggested term when searching for a Community Hub.

 

[Jtrizzy]

X-men Legends nor Marvel Ultimate Alliance have GFWL.

Oops I mean X men Origins Wolverine. It'd be nice if all three were somehow, there are no Marvel games on Steam, it's kind of strange. Maybe it's up to activision and they don't have the license anymore?

 

[Sissel]

Release Halo 2 on Steam. NOW

 

[SparkTR]

It's also worth noting that Duke Nukem 3D+ is confirmed coming to Steam, that's two down from the list. I assume Shadow Warrior is next.

Halo 3 on Steam? Why not make it a Metro exclusive?

Microsoft wants money. The Metro app store is a ghost town and Steam has just become too ingrained with PC gaming. You can't make money without it unless you're an MMO. They could have fought it back in 2006 (and they tried with GFWL), but not in 2013. Also I think the Metro store is targeted more toward casual games, not anything high end.

 

[JaseC]

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft wasn't quite that generous, but those are fair prices.

Seeing as the X360 version of Halo 3 is $20, what I'd deem fair is:

- $9.99 for Halo and Halo 2
- $14.99 for Halo 3
- $29.99 for a bundle of the three

It's also worth noting that Duke Nukem 3D+ is confirmed coming to Steam, that's two down from the list. I assume Shadow Warrior is next.

Nice.