Halo 2 to Debut on Windows Vista

“Halo 2,” the award-winning sequel to the instant classic “Halo: Combat Evolved” to make its PC debut on the Windows Vista platform

“Halo 2,” the game that redefined first-person combat and multiplayer action for millions of gamers worldwide, is set to explode onto PCs exclusively for Windows Vista. “Halo 2″ for Windows Vista will be developed by a dedicated Microsoft Game Studios team in partnership with Bungie Studios.

Only for Windows Vista, “Halo 2″ will offer gamers both the single-player campaign and multiplayer experience of the original, as well as the additional maps offered in the “Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack.” Gamers will also have the exciting opportunity to build, create and customize their own multiplayer levels.

“Halo: Combat Evolved” and its sequel, “Halo 2,” have achieved phenomenal success on the Xbox video game platform as gamers around the world follow the saga of Master Chief in his battle against the Covenant forces. In 2003, the original “Halo” roared onto Windows PCs. In “Halo 2″ for Windows Vista, the action picks up where the first game ended. Master Chief, with the help of a small group of marines, has destroyed the religious artifact and artificial world known as “Halo,” and is making his way back to Earth. There, he and the last surviving Earth forces will mount a titanic struggle against the marauding Covenant enemy.

To date, the Halo franchise has sold more than 14.5 million games worldwide with over 600 million hours of multiplayer action logged across Microsoft’s Xbox Live online gaming service.

BBC Halo 2 gamers face Vista upgrade - Deciding to make the best-selling Halo 2 Xbox game a Vista-only title is likely driven by Microsoft’s desire to get people upgrading to the new version of the Windows. Minimum specifications for Vista (formerly called Longhorn) will be released in the summer but information gathered from reviews of pre-release versions have given clues about its hunger for computer power.

The decision to make only a Vista version of the best-selling Halo 2 game could significantly stunt the game’s appeal.

The Register MS: Halo 2 for PC a Windows Vista ‘exclusive’ - Microsoft looked to Bungie’s Halo to sell its Xbox console, and it’s now planning to see if the same trick will persuade gamers to upgrade to Windows Vista. Yes, Halo 2, which shipped for Xbox over a year ago, is coming to the PC but you’ll need Microsoft’s next major operating system release to run it.