Halo 2 Anniversary Releases For PC (Including Xbox Game Pass) Next Week

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Suit up, Spartans: More than a decade after its original release, Halo 2 will launch on PC again. Halo 2: Anniversary's release date is set for May 12, and it comes as part of the broader Master Chief Collection, which offers six Halo games in one package, including the first four numbered entries, Reach, and 3: ODST. The game are releasing as they are completed, with those who purchased the Master Chief Collection on PC receiving them as free additions when they're ready. It will also be free for Xbox Game Pass for PC owners, making it one of several games coming to the service this month.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection first came to the Xbox One in 2014, prior to the release of Halo 5: Guardians, with all six games included from the start. Halo 2: Anniversary features a complete redesign of its audio and cutscenes to align with modern standards, similar to the Halo: Combat Evolved anniversary from 2011, which is also a part of the Master Chief Collection.

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For the PC release, developer 343 Industries decided to release the Halo games piecemeal, since each has to be updated for PC. Halo 2 is the third game to be added to the PC version of the Master Chief Collection, following in the wake of Reach and the original Combat Evolved. According to the official Xbox site, the remaining three entries in the PC collection will be added later in 2020, finishing with Halo 4.

In other Halo news, while there's an upcoming Xbox event on May 7, Microsoft has indicated that it will focus on titles from its "global development partners," not first-party studios like Xbox Game Studios. Instead, Microsoft announced that its Xbox 20/20 event in July will focus on those titles, which includes the hotly-anticipated Halo Infinite. Slated to arrive this holiday season, Halo Infinite will be the first entry in the franchise in over five years since 2015's Halo 5: Guardians.