Halo 2 on the PC? Yes, but it'll require Vista
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060209-6148.html
Microsoft has announced that they are working on a PC version of Halo 2, the best-selling sequel that follows the adventures of the green-suited Master Chief as he battles invading aliens. Unlike the PC version of the original Halo, which was developed with the help of Gearbox Studios, Halo 2 PC will be written by an in-house team at Microsoft Games. The real surprise, however, is the operating system requirements: Halo 2 PC will require a copy of Windows Vista, the exact release date of which is not known but estimated to be some time near the end of 2006, in order to run.
Halo has had a long and interesting history of platform-hopping. Bungie Studios, famous for the Marathon series of games that were released first on the Macintosh and only later ported to the PC, began developing the original game when they were still an independent company. An early version was demonstrated by Steve Jobs at MacWorld Expo in September 1999. Bungie demonstrated the game at Macworld again in July 2000, shortly after Microsoft had purchased Bungie for approximately US$30 million, promising that it would still come out for the Mac. The game was released for Microsoft's Xbox platform in November, 2001, at the same time as that console's introduction. It was clearly a system-seller, with at least 5 million copies sold for the console. A PC port was rumored for a long time, but when it finally came out in September 2003, many fans were disappointed with Gearbox's port, citing low framerates. The long-promised Macintosh version was also released in December 2003. Despite the sub-par port, the PC version of Halo was a solid seller, consistently appearing in the bestseller lists for that platform.
The sequel, released for the Xbox in November 2004, broke sales records by generating US$125 million in sales in its 24 hours on the shelves, which according to Wired Magazine gave it a more profitable opening day than Spiderman 2. The game would go on to sell over 7 million copies. Speculation about a PC port ran rampant, with some insisting that it would never happen in order to keep its status as an Xbox system seller, and others predicting that a version that ran on the PC was inevitable.
While the latter camp ultimately proved to be correct, the inclusion of Windows Vista as a requirement is an interesting, and some would say frustrating, twist to the tale. Could there be technical reasons for such a decision? Windows Vista will ship with the new version of DirectX, DirectX10, which will include enhancements to Direct3D including the new Shader Model 4. If the game requires new features in DirectX10, it could easily be made to be Vista-only, although there is no word that the game will be graphically enhanced to use Shader Model 4 or other DX10-only features.
This leaves only marketing reasons for the decision. This is not the first time Microsoft has made an arbitrary choice to require a certain operating system to play one of its games. The popular Age of Empires III, released in 2005, required Windows XP to install despite there being no technical reasons to do so. Some enterprising gamers were able to find ways to fool the installer to get it to run on Windows 2000, but it was by no means a trivial feat. Microsoft, of course, wants to find compelling reasons for people to upgrade to its latest operating system. Jim Allchin, the executive in charge of Windows XP and now Vista, once argued that features such as Internet Explorer 7 should be made Vista-only in order to drive the adoption of the new OS. However, strong customer feedback convinced Microsoft that it should not only port IE 7 to XP, but also many of the new developer features of Vista, such as the WinFX application programming interface and libraries. It is easy to argue that developers need these tools to be available on both XP and Vista, simply to ensure a wider audience for their applications. However, a game is not an essential feature of any OS, merely an object of desire, so it is perhaps easier for the company to justify a required upgrade.
Could the delay of Halo 3 be responsible for this decision as well? Microsoft is, after all, primarily a software company, and the lack of a Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 this year cries out for some extra Halo-excitement from somewhere. The company says that the PC version of Halo 2 will include extra multiplayer maps that were delivered over Xbox Live, and will also contain a map editor so that players can make their own arenas.
Microsoft has announced that they are working on a PC version of Halo 2, the best-selling sequel that follows the adventures of the green-suited Master Chief as he battles invading aliens. Unlike the PC version of the original Halo, which was developed with the help of Gearbox Studios, Halo 2 PC will be written by an in-house team at Microsoft Games. The real surprise, however, is the operating system requirements: Halo 2 PC will require a copy of Windows Vista, the exact release date of which is not known but estimated to be some time near the end of 2006, in order to run.
Halo has had a long and interesting history of platform-hopping. Bungie Studios, famous for the Marathon series of games that were released first on the Macintosh and only later ported to the PC, began developing the original game when they were still an independent company. An early version was demonstrated by Steve Jobs at MacWorld Expo in September 1999. Bungie demonstrated the game at Macworld again in July 2000, shortly after Microsoft had purchased Bungie for approximately US$30 million, promising that it would still come out for the Mac. The game was released for Microsoft's Xbox platform in November, 2001, at the same time as that console's introduction. It was clearly a system-seller, with at least 5 million copies sold for the console. A PC port was rumored for a long time, but when it finally came out in September 2003, many fans were disappointed with Gearbox's port, citing low framerates. The long-promised Macintosh version was also released in December 2003. Despite the sub-par port, the PC version of Halo was a solid seller, consistently appearing in the bestseller lists for that platform.
The sequel, released for the Xbox in November 2004, broke sales records by generating US$125 million in sales in its 24 hours on the shelves, which according to Wired Magazine gave it a more profitable opening day than Spiderman 2. The game would go on to sell over 7 million copies. Speculation about a PC port ran rampant, with some insisting that it would never happen in order to keep its status as an Xbox system seller, and others predicting that a version that ran on the PC was inevitable.
While the latter camp ultimately proved to be correct, the inclusion of Windows Vista as a requirement is an interesting, and some would say frustrating, twist to the tale. Could there be technical reasons for such a decision? Windows Vista will ship with the new version of DirectX, DirectX10, which will include enhancements to Direct3D including the new Shader Model 4. If the game requires new features in DirectX10, it could easily be made to be Vista-only, although there is no word that the game will be graphically enhanced to use Shader Model 4 or other DX10-only features.
This leaves only marketing reasons for the decision. This is not the first time Microsoft has made an arbitrary choice to require a certain operating system to play one of its games. The popular Age of Empires III, released in 2005, required Windows XP to install despite there being no technical reasons to do so. Some enterprising gamers were able to find ways to fool the installer to get it to run on Windows 2000, but it was by no means a trivial feat. Microsoft, of course, wants to find compelling reasons for people to upgrade to its latest operating system. Jim Allchin, the executive in charge of Windows XP and now Vista, once argued that features such as Internet Explorer 7 should be made Vista-only in order to drive the adoption of the new OS. However, strong customer feedback convinced Microsoft that it should not only port IE 7 to XP, but also many of the new developer features of Vista, such as the WinFX application programming interface and libraries. It is easy to argue that developers need these tools to be available on both XP and Vista, simply to ensure a wider audience for their applications. However, a game is not an essential feature of any OS, merely an object of desire, so it is perhaps easier for the company to justify a required upgrade.
Could the delay of Halo 3 be responsible for this decision as well? Microsoft is, after all, primarily a software company, and the lack of a Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 this year cries out for some extra Halo-excitement from somewhere. The company says that the PC version of Halo 2 will include extra multiplayer maps that were delivered over Xbox Live, and will also contain a map editor so that players can make their own arenas.
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