Bungie Invites Gamers to Final Farewell to Halo 2

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Bungie Invites Gamers to Final Farewell to Halo 2


Bungie says it is "saddened" by the impending end of Xbox Live support for Halo 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Halo-2-Xbox/dp/B00008J7NZ/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1280156896&sr=1-1] and has invited players to get together on the night before the takedown for one last online goodbye.

Microsoft announced [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98069-Microsoft-Dropping-Online-Support-for-Original-Xbox-Games] last week that Xbox Live support for original Xbox consoles and games would be halted on April 15 in order to allow for improvements to the service that will "harness the power of the Xbox 360 and the Xbox Live community." Unsurprisingly, the decision left a lot of gamers unhappy, chief among them fans of Halo 2, which remains popular despite being more than five years old.

"We're all saddened at the realization that an era is coming to an end but looking back, we're incredibly fortunate to have had such a great run and such strong support from our fans," Bungie wrote in a message [http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=news&cid=24704] on its website. "Halo 2 has been at or near the top of the Xbox Live charts for original games since it launched over five years ago. We're extremely thankful to everyone who has played, enjoyed and supported Halo 2 over Xbox Live. We've had some great fun together, including far too many humpday losses to even recount."

"That said, mark your calendars now - on April 14th let's all rally to go online for one last hoorah," the message continued. "One final farewell and one final opportunity for all of you to kick our asses at Halo 2."

There's only one potential problem: The game's matchmaking requirements mean that players must have all Halo 2 downloadable content in order to play online, but Microsoft has already pulled all the DLC for original Xbox games. In other words, old Halo 2 fans looking for one last dance before the lights go down may be out of luck if they don't happen to have all the DLC on hand as well.

"On it. Not sure what, if any, solution we can work out, but we definitely can't adjust the playlists over the weekend," a Bungie rep wrote in the Halo 2 forum [http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=41087046&postRepeater1-p=2]. "Sit tight." And keep your fingers crossed.


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AboveUp

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May 21, 2008
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Say whatever you want about Bungie, but you have to appreciate the fact they do care about their community.
 

Brotherofwill

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Jan 25, 2009
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Even tough I hate online gaming I have to admit that that's pretty cool.

Kind of like the party in London, when everyone met up in the Underground to get drunk.
 

SnootyEnglishman

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May 26, 2009
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I applaud Bungie for acknowledging the demise of Halo 2 and giving one last Hurrah. I think as part of the celebration all the guys from Red vs Blue should be attending as well
 

RheynbowDash

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Jan 26, 2009
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I actually have this game sitting on my shelf, I guess now is a better time as any to finally take it out of the shrink wrap.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Damnit! Why did I have to delete the maps!

Hopefully they work something out, I would love to play Halo 2 agian.

AboveUp said:
Say whatever you want about Bungie, but you have to appreciate the fact they do care about their community.
So true, which is why I love them.
 

DazZ.

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Jun 4, 2009
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Hurry for dedicated servers...
I hate it when companies can just stop you from playing a game you bought.
 

tkioz

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May 7, 2009
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Andy Chalk said:
Unsurprisingly, the decision left a lot of gamers unhappy, chief among them fans of Halo 2, which remains popular despite being more than five years old.
I really don't understand why anyone is that upset... It's not like they pulled an EA and stopped support for a game only a year old, yea it sucks, but it should of been expected.
 

DSEZ

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Aug 8, 2009
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i know ill be playing i havent played halo in forever i think it would be fun
 

The Rockerfly

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I'm interested what they will provide when the original xbox live has shut down, I mean costs will be cut but, so what?
Okay what I am asking, what will it provide to the community when xbox live is shut down?
 

dududf

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Aug 31, 2009
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Not surprised people are playing Halo 2 still.

Hell, there are still Team Fortress classic players playing that game. As long as Dedicated servers are availible for the game, the game will still be thoroughly enjoyed by fans.
 

Geoffrey42

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The Rockerfly said:
I'm interested what they will provide when the original xbox live has shut down, I mean costs will be cut but, so what?
Okay what I am asking, what will it provide to the community when xbox live is shut down?
At least one previous statement indicated that the 100-friend limit on Live accounts was due to Halo 2. In all likelihood, they're just getting annoyed at supporting legacy code, and whatever other limitations that is imposing. I'm sure there's some cost savings in there to boot, along with some serious math regarding revenue from Legacy Gold accounts compared to the predicted % that they can get to pony up for Halo 3/ODST/Reach or/and a 360.
 

wooty

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Think we might see a big emergence in Halo 2 LAN games now? Might be the only way to keep this game alive
 

mezmerizer02

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The Rockerfly said:
I'm interested what they will provide when the original xbox live has shut down, I mean costs will be cut but, so what?
Okay what I am asking, what will it provide to the community when xbox live is shut down?
it's driving them to but a 360 and play all those backward compatible games you have again, and this time there's achiev..... no, no there's not. don't bother with those old things, "hell use them as costers, we've got your money *****!". Sorry, seemed to have gone from 1st to 3rd person without acknowledgement.
 

sunami88

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Jun 23, 2008
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Damn! I just gave Halo 2 it's final farewell like two days ago! I've had 1199 games in Halo 2 [http://www.bungie.net/stats/playerstatshalo2.aspx?player=Sunami88] for the past few years, but finally my little brother and I sat down and finished my 1200th game [http://www.bungie.net/Stats/GameStatsHalo2.aspx?gameid=802641042&player=Sunami88]. Of course it was on my least favourite map, and we ended up getting booted near the end (I was a little grenade happy).

Oh well. Although I had fun, it hasn't aged very well... Still, I might just forgo my nice round even number, and boot it up on that day anyways (shall I try for 1234?).

Andy Chalk said:
There's only one potential problem: The game's matchmaking requirements mean that players must have all Halo 2 downloadable content in order to play online, but Microsoft has already pulled all the DLC for original Xbox games. In other words, old Halo 2 fans looking for one last dance before the lights go down may be out of luck if they don't happen to have all the DLC on hand as well.
Oh, and just as a note, I'd heard this too, but it's seemingly untrue. My brother and I played on his 360 and we got into a Big Team battle (that said, I had the old Halo 2 Map Pack disc with some of the DLC on it, so that helped).

Basically, I guess it is possible, but you need that Multiplayer Map Pack disc (which if I remember correctly, doesn't have all the DLC that was available on it, but I could be wrong).
 

Karhax

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Jun 30, 2009
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If they had dedicated servers this would not happen.
They could just give the master server code to a fan of the game and it would keep running forever.
 

Filtertip

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Jan 30, 2009
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games like halo 2 can still live on with vpn systems some nice free software out there for that.