Halo 2 XBOX Live Server Finally Shut Down

On April 15th Microsoft decided that it was time to shut down the servers for original XBOX titles, including Halo 2. However after they shut down the servers a few players remained and had their machines run non stop keeping them logged into the servers.

The final person on the Halo 2 server, Apache N4SIR, was booted off of the server on May 11th. With his removal Halo 2 servers for the XBOX has officially died.

Today we would like to commemorate this tragic end of all multiplayer, original XBOX game's lives by shoving multiple plasma grenades into Udunnojack's face.

Story at MTV Multiplayer

Bungie Signs With Activision

Bungie, the studio that made Halo, have signed a ten year publishing deal with Activision. For the next decade all Bungie games will be published by Activision. However, Bungie still retains all their intellectual property and will continue to be an independent company.

The real question now is will Bungie end up like Infinity Ward?

Infinity Ward was owned by Activision and Bungie still will be an idependant company but they will still dealing with the company whose CEO has been quoted saying "We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."

Due to Activision's history of making yearly sequels we may end up seeing Bungie being "encouraged" to continue making Halo games. Because we all know that Bobby likes his money and Halo is a hot selling IP.

Full Story at www.develop-online.net