Why Halo: The Master Chief Collection won't make the jump to PC
343 Industries' Dan Ayoub examines the massive scale of Halo: The Master Chief Collection and notes that the priority is getting it right on Xbox One.
Most Xbox One owners are excited to see Halo: The Master Chief Collection make its way to their console in November, however there's also a large sector (many comprised by our own Chatty community) that are wondering if Master Chief will ever land on a PC platform again. Recently, 343 Industries' Dan Ayoub addressed this topic.
"From a technical standpoint, you look at the architecture of the Xbox One and there are some similarities to the architecture of a modern PC," Ayoub told Kotaku. "That certainly makes that sort of cross-platform development easier. But beyond that the ease goes away. Master Chief Collection is massive. We have to coordinate four games, 100-plus maps, a lot of new cinematics, and Halo 2 Anniversary."
Ayoub adds that the sheer volume of the project meant that the team could only focus on a singular platform, with 343 feeling it best to focus on Xbox One at the moment. He also notes that since it's the ten-year anniversary of Halo 2 on the original Xbox, the Xbox users should get the first crack at an Anniversary Edition. With that said, Ayoub didn't rule out the PC platform entirely.
"Obviously as part of Microsoft, PCs are part of our business," he added. "When you look at that market and community, there's almost limitless possibilities in terms of what we can do."
Halo: The Master Chief Collection will land on Xbox One on November 11. You can check out our preview coverage here.
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replyOzzie Mejia posted a new article, Why Halo: The Master Chief Collection won't make the jump to PC.
343 Industries' Dan Ayoub examines the massive scale of Halo: The Master Chief Collection and notes that the priority is getting it right on Xbox One.-
Those sons of bitches.
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I don't, man. But now you have me intrigued.
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Crusty, it's just not the same. Trust me.
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Another came I don't need to buy now.
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game dammit!
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i never expected it to. i fully plan on picking up whatever xbone package comes out with the collection. then selling it after i've played through the games
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Did anyone really believe this would come to PC?
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:-( No, but hope springs enteral so...
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Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.
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This is probably the only reason some folks are buying xbox over ps4 right now. They'd be insane to allow it on PC.
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Exactly. Its nearly the only thing I would play on that $400 device where a $400 video card would play a lot of games.
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I would have bundled a copy of the PC version in each Xbox One copy to unlock at a later date (maybe with an additional fee, free with Xbox Live Gold) that syncs cloud saves between both versions.
PC gamers get their copy (and a short incentive to get an XB1) and MSFT Artificially inflates the sales of the XB1 game.
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BOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Lol, well at least the hope is gone. Halo forever Xboned
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"Obviously as part of Microsoft, PCs are part of our business," he added. "When you look at that market and community, there's almost limitless possibilities in terms of what we can do."
Man, they must have like a big container of bullshit phrases to spout out about the PC and just randomly pull one out and say it whenever asked about PC. Sort of like whose line is it anyway in regards to providing PC support.-
Yeah, that's ultimately why that headline kinda fit. That line sounds like "Yeah, a PC build ain't happening."
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Ah yes, coping mechanisms.
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Haha. WE DIDNT WANT YOUR STUOID GAME
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You know, I liked Halo a lot on release, and played 2 & 3 when they hit Xbox and 360, but I honestly can't imagine buying them to play on PC in 2014. It'd just be too weird, I think. To me, they're definitively console experiences.
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I've played the PC ports of Halo 1&2 and both felt like really boring games. Really generic FPS games, but they can be mentioned to be some of the first with the dumb idea to carry only two weapons at once etc.
The levels started to be annoyingly bland and repetitive especially when the Flood came to the picture.
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So, you don't like half life?
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This explains so much.
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True, they'd probably contract gearbox then gearbox would farm it out to someone else and blame them.
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Isn't the Xbox One pretty close to PC hardware?
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It IS a pc, by most standards. Its got an x86_64 based cpu/gpu dealy. Its like a laptop w/ 'integrated graphics' except someone ripped out the integrated graphics and replaced it with an integrated beefy as fuck (relatively speaking) system.
Considering a 'dev kit' for these things is just a pc (from what i understand) yes, it would be fairly easy to port over.
That said, i am not a game developer, just a web developer, and i dont know shit.-
The devkits are retail Xbox Ones with different software running than the retail software.
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Porting the Halo games (including 2 but doing it right, no the total mess it is on PC now) at the right price won't be a slap in the face.
Saying they are commited to PC and then porting the Halo games to Xbox One but not to PC is. Even more with the hardware on the xbox one beeing more silimar to the one on PC than any of the previous generations.
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God damnit. I didn't actually have high hopes they'd bring it to PC, but I still want it. Fuck.
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I'm getting it for XB1 but I would she also gotten it for PC as well just for the novelty.
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I will someday surely end up with an XB1, but it's going to be a while. Got other time/money priorities right now. And when I do eventually get the console the MC Collection will probably be my first purchase. But damn if I wouldn't have liked to play it on PC instead. :-/
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Lost interest in Halo after Halo 2 became a Vista exclusive. Halo for PC was consolized with the controls anyways, way too slow and 'floaty'. I'm sure that if they had put in actual effort for the PC, that I'd have been hooked, but that's a 'what if' that resulted in lost potential sales. M$ hasn't seemed to care about supporting the PC for nearly a decade. You can tell by how much effort they put into DirectX, and how it took AMD's Mantle pitch to shake Microsoft and get them off their collective asses and do something...anything to improve PC gaming and performance.
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I had the same reaction as the Mystics in The Dark Crystal when one of them spontaneously goes "POOF".
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That's a relief. I was afraid we'd have to wait 3 years for a shitty, outdated, port.
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I guess they hate money!
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PC version confirmed! Nice :D
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Halo's PC port history is shaky. Halo CE which was done by Gearbox initially launched with issues pertaining to Ati Radeons drivers but, once ironed out, became one of the smoothest MP experiences at the time. I felt the game was a natural fit for the PC.
But then Bungie/MS handled the Halo 2 port and its was probably the most shoddy PC port of any game (short of any Capcom port) I ever played.
the difference between the two games was that Gearbox rebuilt portions of the game from scratch if it didnt perform properly on a PC, BumGie/MS just stuffed it into a PC game box and shipped it.
Frankly, if a port cant be done properly, I'd rather not have it at all. the series deserves better than half-assed attemps.
