I had preordered Halo Wars 2: Ultimate Edition back in the day on Xbox One, and played it with my Halo Wars friends for several months. This purchase also added the game to my Microsoft account for the “Xbox Play Anywhere” thing. Fast forward to modern day when I’ve built a new PC with Windows 10, and I was wanting to install my Halo Wars 2 onto it and play again with those same friends on PC. We’ve migrated away from Xbox One in the past two years, more towards PC gaming. To my surprise, I wasn’t able to install it onto my PC. The Halo Wars 2 game that I own in my Microsoft Store account explicitly says “Supports Xbox Play Anywhere: yours to play on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PC at no additional cost”, but then right above that it states “Available on: Hub” only. It didn’t have “Xbox” or “Windows 10 PC” like the other Halo Wars 2 versions of the game on the same Microsoft Game store. When I tried to install the version I owned, it told me that I didn’t have any applicable devices linked to my Microsoft Account. My friend who was also trying to get his Halo Wars 2 to install, was having the same exact problem. My assumption here is that there was some weird conflict between the Play Anywhere feature and the game I actually owned being only available for a Microsoft “Hub”.
I had tried all of the recommended troubleshooting steps on the Microsoft support site, with no luck. I then went on to contact Microsoft Support, who tried to help me through this problem. It took about 30 minutes, and despite my reasoning, the resolution the agent came to was “the game was made unavailable on the store by the game developers while they update and work on their servers” and that “it’s only affecting Halo Wars 2”. I didn’t believe that, because I couldn’t find any publications whatsoever to that being true. On top of seeing that the Halo Wars 2: Standard Edition and Complete Edition were still for sale and available on the store.
I honestly don’t know where else to turn to try and resolve this issue. I really don’t want to have to resort to buying another Halo Wars 2 at full digital price just to enjoy it again, but on PC. If anyone has experience with this issue or can send me to somewhere where there’s relevant information, I would greatly appreciate it.