Microsoft has finally announced when it plans to bring Halo 2: Anniversary, the next installment in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, to Windows 10 PCs. The game will join the collection on May 12th and will be available from the Microsoft Store and Steam, while also being part of Xbox Game Pass for PC.
Halo 2: Anniversary is the remaster of Halo 2 that first released on Xbox One as a part of the original Master Chief Collection back in 2014. The remaster, which includes fully reworked visuals, remade cutscenes and a rearranged soundtrack, was co-developed by 343 Industries and Saber Interactive, the studio behind 2019's World War Z, as well as many impressive Nintendo Switch ports such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition and Vampyr. The remaster also features a function that allows fans to instantly switch between the original Xbox game's visuals, bumped up to 4K resolutions and higher frame-rates, and the Xbox One remaster, similar to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.
While this isn't the first time Halo 2 has seen a release to PC, this is the arrival of Halo: The Master Chief Collection marks Microsoft and 343 Industries' first attempts at bringing all six of the main series Halo titles and their remasters to PC, starting with the release of Halo: Reach in 2019. This later lead to the release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary for PC on March 3rd 2020, and while both ports were met with some criticism at launch, the developer has continued to update them into what has become to definitive way to experience the Halo games.
It's unknown when Halo 3 will be released. While one could assume the turnaround for bringing Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and Halo 4 to PC may take less time than their predecessors, given that they were never given the 'Anniversary' treatment like the first two entries, Microsoft and 343 Industries certainly have a lot going on with the impending releases of the Xbox Series X and Halo Infinite on the horizon.
Thankfully, it seems fans won't have to wait too much longer to play Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST on PC, as 343 Industries recently posted screenshots of the ports in a development update in April. It's likely we will even see the ports mentioned as part of Microsoft's recently announced Xbox 20/20, a series of announcements regarding the future of Xbox taking place every month for the rest of 2020.
Halo fans on PC will surely have their hands full for a while, however, as Halo 2 is one of the most critically acclaimed first-person shooters of all time, and often regarded as the game that single-handedly defined console multiplayer gaming as a landmark title for both the Xbox and Xbox Live.
Halo 2: Anniversary joins Halo: The Master Chief Collection for PC on May 12th.