14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer 343 Industries and publisher Microsoft have announced that they will close down the multiplayer servers for Halo 2 on February 15, which means that players who are interested in the game will have to use LAN for their matches.
Jessica Shea, a producer working at 343 industries, states on Halo Waypoint that, “We’ve been monitoring the population for months, and it’s been peaking consistently at approximately 20 players or less. Those that own this game can continue to enjoy Multiplayer over LAN after that date; however our network services will be turned off at that time.”
She adds, “We love you, Halo 2 PC, and you will live forever in our hearts.”
The decision makes sense given that most fans of the series have probably moved on from Halo 2 and are now playing either the third or the fourth core game in the series, which offers significantly improved multiplayer experiences.
The servers for Halo 2 have been online since May of 2007, when the game finally arrived on the PC close to 3 years after launching on the original Xbox home console from Microsoft.
Halo 2 is the game that introduced The Arbiter as a playable character and expanded on the game universe and the mechanics that were introduced in the first title from Bungie.
Since then, the series has been taken over by 343 Industries, who have managed to launch the fourth game in the franchise, which went on to shatter sales records and deliver a big hit for Microsoft.
Halo 4 marked the return of Master Chief and Cortana and since it was released, the developers have introduced a number of new Spartan Ops episodes.
They are at the moment working on a new Majestic map pack and a new season of cooperative multiplayer operations is planned for this year.