We’re getting mixed messages here from Microsoft, and now Halo 5 and Windows are in a prolonged “will they or won’t they” period of non-exclusivity tension.
In the “will they” camp is series director Frank O’Connor, who recently stated “there is plenty of chance Halo 5 could appear on PC.” You can watch the stream here. He’s fairly blunt and casual about it.
Then we have the “won’t they” camp, featuring a recent tweet from Aaron Greenberg, Xbox’s marketing lead, who is of a very different opinion.
@RMDXBOX This is not true. Game is being made exclusively for Xbox One.
— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) October 23, 2015
Damnit, Microsoft, will I be able to splatter Spartans with a mouse and keyboard, like the good gods of gaming intended, or won’t I? The suspense is killing me. And here I am, posting about it, playing right into your dirty little marketing hands.
I don’t think this is the last we’ve heard of the matter. Following this, O’Connor will only get more questions about it, and as he’s stated on the above stream, he doesn’t mind that at all. Hopefully by that point, a few internal conversations will have occurred and everyone will be on the same page. Or maybe it’s the start of a fabricated beef, designed to draw more attention to Halo?
Wouldn’t be the first time.
Comments
31 responses to “So Could Halo 5 Come To The PC Or Not?”
It’s far from impossible. Halo 5 was developed on x86 PCs, and the XBone is an x86-64 system so it shouldn’t be too difficult to port Halo 5 to PC. Case in point: Halo CE and Halo 2. Both were developed for the original Xbox (itself an x86 system) which later saw releases on PC.
though the less said about the halo 2 port the better
well actually Halo CE was Developed on PC and MAC well before mircosoft went and brought out bungie to make Halo a launch title for the Original Xbox
Xbox One… and anything is possible.
The bit architecture maybe the same, but the configuration of the unit most likely is not so. Consoles often have specialised components and even some extra buses so some components for a given task are linked directly. Back in the day (don’t think this is still done anymore) there was also unified RAM where both the RAM and VRAM were the same component so when a console loaded a texture, the GPU could see it – it didn’t need to copy from the RAM to the VRAM like PCs do (?).
However, even if one rules out hardware differences there is still the software.
PCs run a full size OS which is often generalised for a wide configuration of components and applications (specifically process scheduling, etc). The OS on consoles are significantly more specialised so have far less software overhead than PCs.
So it would take some effort to replicate the experience from a specialised, easily known platform on a general purpose one where the hardware differences are most likely abstracted away (yet more overhead).
I will admit, some of what I say maybe dated but just because the CPU instruction set is the same bitwise architecture does not mean an easy port.
And they both use the DirectX graphics API (Where the X in XBOX comes from)
They probably do have plans/ideas about releasing it on PC in the far future, but the Head of the Xbox division understandably does NOT want anyone to talk about such plans for at least a year.
If it did come to PC it would probably be a Windows 10 exclusive, so bleh.
Or, best of both worlds… Games for Windows 10.
yeah and inorder to use it you must have a window live account
That and it’ll probably require you to have the store and Xbox Live apps installed (via assumption as they’re part of the base installation), which alot of people have already removed via powershell.
I thought microsoft was for pc gamers?
Nothing new here. Marketing knows halo5 will probably sell consoles. Just stating that it’s coming out on pc would more than likely loose some sales. So it’s pretty likely they’re telling fibs about no PC version to protect console sales (and lets face it they need every one they can get – PS4 is doing laps around them).
If the series director says there is a PC build I’d believe it as I’m much more inclined to take his word over a professional liar (aka marketing). Whether that PC build ever sees the light of day is another thing tho – maybe halo5 generates a large uptick in console sales, if it does they’ll keep it exclusive to the console.
Yeah, unfortunately I think this might be the case. Although, I wish they would just release all the Halo games on PC after a couple of years or so. I was kinda thinking of buying an Xbox One when I heard about the Master Chief Collection, but when I saw how much of a mess it was, not just for the multiplayer but also for the campaigns as well (as far as frame rates go), then I decided against it. If they implemented a dynamic resolution for MCC like they did for Halo 5, which helped it immensely in holding it’s target frame rate 99% of the time, then it probably would have sealed the deal for me. I’m always going to choose frame rate over graphics.
So, yeah, I’m basically hoping that eventually they release all of them on PC, otherwise I’m just going to not play them. People talked about this in a previous post about Halo 5 possibly coming to PC, and about the fact that they were never going to buy an Xbox One either way, so it wasn’t exactly it was going to dilute the market or affect Xbox One sales in any way (at least in their eyes, which I have to agree with). I know it probably won’t happen, so I’m not going to hold my breath. I just wish more console developers put more priority on frame rate instead of pretty graphics.
the problem is, if they release it on pc, there will be less people buying it on xboxone. thats their problem.
Yet by putting it on PC they will increase sales tenfold. Not having split-screen will hurt sales much more, plus, those people would buy the PC version. I have one Xbox One at home & one Gold, but to play co-op with family it would be much cheaper to buy one PC version each than one Xbox One & Gold each.
Yeah, I’m not buying due to no split-screen, and I’d be buying an XB1 & Halo if it had split screen and was any good.
Can’t find my source, so redacting my post.
Yes, it’s certainly cheaper to buy 2 copies on pc, but you don’t have to buy 2 copies of the game and 2 lots of live to play it in co-op on console. It’s just 2 consoles, 1 digital copy of the game and 1 profile having live.
If you set your co-op partners as your “home” console, they can access all the digital content attached to your profile and your Live privileges, while your profile can be logged in on your console playing the game using the same license and your Live privileges at the exact same time, even in the same lobby inside of the game.
Then you both get a full screen and 1080p/60.
It will come out on PC if Halo 5 doesn’t sell enough.
…but it will.
I got a simple Formula
Halo 5 cost $D to make.
If XB1 Halo 5 makes $D + Profit it will remain XB1 Exclusive.
If XB1 Halo 5 makes under $D it will be released on PC in about 12 months.
It’s a bad sales pitch to say your big exclusive games aren’t so exclusive.
It’s not rocket science, all they said is it may come to pc as it is technically possible.
They didn’t say when. If they feel like releasing it to pc, more than likely it will be a long time away.
Is there a PC audience hanging out for a Halo release?
It’s not like there’s a shortage of fps games. They’d probably still pretty well, particularly to people who had previous Xboxes but not the current, but I can’t see it setting the world on fire.
im not especially looking out for it, but i would buy it if it was to release on pc if not only for the principal that yes there is a market on pc for these games
My thoughts too. It doesn’t really distinguish itself from the hoards of FPS competition on the PC. I suspect only those invested in ‘the story’ would care.
I would buy it on PC if it came out. I own a PS4 and I’m not going to buy a xbone just to play halo. Release on PC, I’ll jump straight on it.
Both could be right – Halo 5 IS an exclusive, but it could POSSIBLY change.
I think it will, but it wont be until the end of next year at least. There is nothing stopping them, other than the fact that Halo sells systems. So after that cools down, then they can announce something more solid (fingers crossed).
Does it even matter if H5 comes to the PC? I’m a PC gamer myself (have an Xbox 360, do NOT have an Xbone), and if they ever did release H5 on PC, that would leave a huge gap in the storyline as there would still be no H3 or H4 on PC. So it would be pretty pointless. Now if we’re talking about the Master Chief Collection AND H5, then it matters…
Microsoft only care about peasants. Halo 5 won’t be on PC.
not having actually tried it, but can’t you stream games via win10?
All MS needs to do is add mouse/keyboard support… we should start petitioning for that
not having actually tried it, but can’t you stream games via win10?
All MS needs to do is add mouse/keyboard support… we should start petitioning for that