Damnit no XBLA Halo.
Here's the non-Halo 3 news:
New Halo 2 Maps!?
Another bombshell that was dropped today was the announcement of upcoming new multiplayer maps for Halo 2. There are a ton of details we simply can’t reveal right now but we can confirm that this content will be coming out sometime next Spring and it will cost
something to download. We can also confirm that this new content is only going to be available on Xbox 360and that you’ll need a hard drive to download them (which is also required to play Halo 2 on 360 anyways).
That last point is probably going to rub some of you the wrong way. And frankly, we can’t really blame you for potentially being a little upset at this news. We’re really excited that these maps are coming together and we have the opportunity to give our fans some new content over two years after the game shipped but ultimately, when it comes to pricing and timing and distribution and exclusivity, it’s not up to Bungie. We make games and in this case we’re making maps. Microsoft Game Studios is our publisher and they have the final call on the when/where/how part of the equation.
We’ve seen a gradual shift in our online population more and more towards Xbox 360 but I know there are a lot of folks out there who haven’t made the switch yet. Does that mean you’ll never get to play these new Halo 2 maps? We can’t say for certain, but ultimately we hope to find ways to make the maps more accessible to more fans over time. We have in the past, after all. But again, the final outcome of those decisions won’t totally be up to us.
These maps are shaping up to be really cool and once we can start talking more about them, I think our fans are going to be very, very happy with what’s in the works. With several hundred thousand people still playing Halo 2 on Xbox Live, it’s clear that there’s still high interest in our game, which is awesome. We’re eager to get this new content in your hands as we have folks who are putting a lot of hard work into making something really cool.
One positive of all this is that the team responsible for the backwards compatibility on Xbox 360 are going to go back and look at Halo 2 again. Many of you are aware that a few bugs exist when playing Halo 2 on the new platform and we’ve gotten indications that work is being done to try and improve that experience.
And ultimately, if you want to play Halo 3 next year and if you want to take part in the OTHER big bomb that was dropped today (see below), you’re going to have to upgrade to Xbox 360. There’s still some time and hopefully between now and then, getting a 360 will be more viable for you and there will continue to be more and more reasons to convince you it’s worth the upgrade. (if Halo 3 isn’t already enough)
See the
Halo 3 thread for details on that news...
