If you haven’t played Halo Custom Edition on the PC then play it before you post on this topic.
Halo 4 on PC could have two editing options: Forge, like on the 360, and custom edition. In custom edition you could do what ever you wanted: make the forge controls better, make more forge objects, make entire maps starting from just an empty grid, edit parameters on everything and etc. The CE would be more for enthusiasts, but though CE, more forge objects and maps could be created for the casual editor to use in forge. And all of those could easily be downloaded just like for Halo CE in the form of a .map file.
I think that Microsoft won’t ever make a PC version because they’re too scared of people creating better material than what was included with the original game. Take the map ‘Hugeass’ or ‘Coldsnap’ for example. I had more fun on those custom maps than the original maps that came with the game. I never encountered any hackers nor did my game ever freeze while playing custom maps.
Which Halo 4 map would you rather play on: One of the in-game maps or a map with scarabs, assault pelicans, jets, nukes and a bunch of other crazy stuff? I would pick the second option.
Halo is a console seller, this is why microsoft doesn’t want it on PC, because they have marketing tricks to get what they want and what they want is to sell more consoles.
> maybe they’re scared that people are going to pirate it?
I remember that like half of the digital copies of Crysis 2 were pirated from the Internet. Microsoft probably doesn’t want to pool resources into a platform where a lot of people are just going to steal it anyway.
> They don’t put it on PC because they want more people to buy and use a Xbox.
Exactly. MS uses Halo as a hitch to make you buy an Xbox. Also, the only reason H1 and H2 were released on PC was because of popular demand, but now that MS has seen what Halo has grown into, they will never release it on PC, as much as I would like to have it on PC
Other thing, MS isn’t afraid that people are going to to pirate it. Hell, there are already pirated copies of H4 out there, some of which (reportedy) released a day after the game went gold
Halo 4 was pirated.
There are ways to stop pirating, just look at Steam’s games, tell me, how many of Valves games has been pirated.
> 2# modding the game to Yoink!
Nothing wrong with modding, as long as it’s limited to Campaign, and Custom games, or do you think custom campaigns like Project Lumoria is bad?
> 3# cheating
Skulls are cheating.
Granted cheating in MP is wrong, messing around in campaign with developer mode is a riot.
#4 The Xbox side of Halo’s community doesn’t want to let any more Halo games go to the PC even if they’re 5+ years old, and aren’t selling a single Xbox, IE HALO 3 and Halo ODST.
As for selling Xboxes, please note the cost difference between maintaining a Gaming PC able to run a Halo game better than Halo 2 and a New Xbox.
Xbox 360 $200-$400
Gaming PC $700+
I don’t know about you guys, but your everyday Xbox gamer/new to gaming isn’t going to drop $700+ on a new computer and/or hardware just to play a PC game, he’s more likely to buy an Xbox that’s between $200 and $400, and soon to be even cheaper.
> If you haven’t played Halo Custom Edition on the PC then play it before you post on this topic.
>
> Halo 4 on PC could have two editing options: Forge, like on the 360, and custom edition. In custom edition you could do what ever you wanted: make the forge controls better, make more forge objects, make entire maps starting from just an empty grid, edit parameters on everything and etc. The CE would be more for enthusiasts, but though CE, more forge objects and maps could be created for the casual editor to use in forge. And all of those could easily be downloaded just like for Halo CE in the form of a .map file.
>
> I think that Microsoft won’t ever make a PC version because they’re too scared of people creating better material than what was included with the original game. Take the map ‘Hugeass’ or ‘Coldsnap’ for example. I had more fun on those custom maps than the original maps that came with the game. I never encountered any hackers nor did my game ever freeze while playing custom maps.
>
> Which Halo 4 map would you rather play on: One of the in-game maps or a map with scarabs, assault pelicans, jets, nukes and a bunch of other crazy stuff? I would pick the second option.
Such a shame too…Halo is like a perfect game to build mods off of and with all the new Sandbox/Forge additions there would sure be a alot of creative mods.
Microsoft obviously doesnt think the investment in making Halo for PC will be worth the return because of H2 Vista and that is ridiculous because nobody plays on Vista as is.
Honestly if Halo 4 came out on PC like next year and had the same kind of dev kit available as Custom Edition had then by the time I got to the game designing portion of my college then we probably would have phased out UDK if the Halo dev was free. I would definitely consider going back to pc gaming but the only game I really ever enjoyed on PC was Halo. That was two years of my life. Regular CE for like 5-7 months and then I discovered custom edition and quickly became part of this guild called Realworlders. If you play Custom Edition you probably at least see thier servers they have like five or more dedicated servers. And theres no ridiculous initiation or proving of skills it just a bunch of people who love to play Halo. They have a huge mapcycle covering a multitude of maps that you wont find anywhere else. 100+ custom maps. I wish that gearbox could figure out how to improve the ping though.
I wouldn’t want it on PC because then the PS3 fanboys would brag that they can finally play Halo. But modding yes. The mods for left 4 dead and skyrim are awesome.
Given the circumstances, CE Custom and Halo 2 Vista were in the right place at the right time and had enough exposure that it managed to work. Transforming a console game to PC though is more complicated then it sounds however. Currently, the Xbox 360 utilizes more technology than basic computers, what many PC gamers think is good.
I think that PC games and Halo have seen its end. Halo 4 would be nice, ESPECIALLY if they integrated the chip technology for gaming PC’s. That would make the experience alone 100 times better. But at the current level, PC is better left alone when it comes to Halo.
> Given the circumstances, CE Custom and Halo 2 Vista were in the right place at the right time and had enough exposure that it managed to work. Transforming a console game to PC though is more complicated then it sounds however. Currently, the Xbox 360 utilizes more technology than basic computers, what many PC gamers think is good.
>
> I think that PC games and Halo have seen its end. Halo 4 would be nice, ESPECIALLY if they integrated the chip technology for gaming PC’s. That would make the experience alone 100 times better. But at the current level, PC is better left alone when it comes to Halo.
My PC runs games better than the Xbox. How would the Xbox run Halo better than a gaming rig?
Sorry if this might sound offensive, but you guys only wanting H4 on Xbox are really exhibiting the “CoD” mentality. What I mean by that is you automatically think “this is good enough” and don’t even consider something outside of your comfort zone. This is the mentality that allows production-line games to exist (minimal development and MAXIMUM mass production).
Most people would pirate the game to play online. This could easily be solved by including a 24 digit non-algorithmic hexatridecimal number in addition to the CD-key. Both would have to be recognized by a secure server to be able to play online.
And Microsoft could make a great deal of profit if they released Halo 4 PC early in 2014. I know that I would buy it. They could have a promotion that would let the best custom maps submitted in a contest to be featured in Halo 5.
> > 1# Pirating
>
> Halo 4 was pirated.
> There are ways to stop pirating, just look at Steam’s games, tell me, how many of Valves games has been pirated.
>
>
> > 2# modding the game to Yoink!
>
> Nothing wrong with modding, as long as it’s limited to Campaign, and Custom games, or do you think custom campaigns like Project Lumoria is bad?
>
>
> > 3# cheating
>
> Skulls are cheating.
> Granted cheating in MP is wrong, messing around in campaign with developer mode is a riot.
>
> #4 The Xbox side of Halo’s community doesn’t want to let any more Halo games go to the PC even if they’re 5+ years old, and aren’t selling a single Xbox, IE HALO 3 and Halo ODST.
>
>
> As for selling Xboxes, please note the cost difference between maintaining a Gaming PC able to run a Halo game better than Halo 2 and a New Xbox.
>
> Xbox 360 $200-$400
> Gaming PC $700+
>
> I don’t know about you guys, but your everyday Xbox gamer/new to gaming isn’t going to drop $700+ on a new computer and/or hardware just to play a PC game, he’s more likely to buy an Xbox that’s between $200 and $400, and soon to be even cheaper.
Plus maintaining a PC seems to cost a lot more than an xbox.
The reason you don’t see Halo on PC anymore is Xbox Live Subscriptions.
If Halo came out on PC the die hard fans and forgers would just use the PC edition without subscribing to xbox live. In turn that means no annual fees to xbox/MS, no rented movies, no adverts seen, no chat, terms of use, no DLC without Steam or Origin or similar etc etc.
MS want you on the xbox/live for a multitude of reasons. Halo 4/5/6 will all remain on the consoles only, I’ll bet on it.
It’s not as much they’re scared but rather a marketing symbiosis between Halo and Xbox consoles.
Halo is seen as the xbox’s highest marketed exclusive. Bigger than Forza, bigger than Gears of War, and just as much a popular franchise in the US as many Nintendo and Sony exclusives.
To sell it through both Xbox and PC would likely decrease the sales rate of the xbox consoles. It’s obvious -Yoink!- is trying to squeeze out as much as they can out of the 360 before the next gen is announced. Notice how H4 requires so much data space and gold membership for spartan ops? It’s a marketing move to incline players to upgrade their hardware if they have only the lesser models like the 4gb or arcade. If H4 were to be released on PC, it would not only deter from certain aspects of quality, since 343 would need to focus on a PC port as well as their xbox port. But it would also deter some incentive of us consumers to upgrade our xboxes.
> maybe they’re scared that people are going to pirate it?
Not only is pirating an issue, they want the focus to be on the console. They want consumer to buy xbox consoles, that way they get more money because, well, 1. it’s their product, so you have to have went out to purchase an Xbox, in addition to the game itself, and 2. because they can advertise through the dashboard, not to mention people buying memberships and map packs, Spartan Ops season 2 (?) and what not.
It’s just a much smarter business move.
*EDIT: Plus they have to keep the competition tight against other AAA companies, such a Sony (PS3) and Nintendo (Wii)