Halo Wars 2 is a criminally underrated RTS for Xbox One and PC. Set somewhere around the events of Halo 5, Halo Wars 2 follows the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire in their battle against Atriox, a rogue brute that has built up a sizeable force of his own. Halo Wars 2 enjoyed a decent amount of post-launch content, including a campaign expansion featuring the dreaded Flood, new modes, and playable heroes. Lately, though, development has practically dried up.
Halo Wars 2 fans started a petition on Change.org to try and get noticed by 343i, requesting further development, much-requested fixes and balance changes, as well as a Steam version – something we'd heard a long time ago, was on the cards. Sadly, 343i responded today to say that the studio is not committing any more resources to Halo Wars 2, as it puts its focus on the Master Chief Collection. The full statement is as follows.
As awesome as all of these requests are, and as much as we personally share these same desires, the unfortunate reality is that we currently are unable to commit to any future Halo Wars 2 continued development or support at this time.The same team that is currently working on bringing MCC to PC and Halo: Reach to MCC (the 343 Publishing Team) is also the team that helped make Halo Wars 2 a reality. With the large scope and immense amount of work surrounding MCC for PC, the resources that were previously focused on Halo Wars 2 have been pulled over to help support MCC and Halo: Reach development.Every one of us cares deeply for Halo Wars 2 and the awesome community that has and continues to play the title. The team has previously partnered directly with the Halo Wars community to be heavily involved in balance patches, bug fixes, and numerous improvements to the game both during initial development and well beyond its launch and subsequent DLC releases. Since launch, Halo Wars 2 received 18 content updates and over 30 balance patches that were built entirely on community feedback and requested changes. While we'd love to keep that great partnership going, at this time the team does not have the bandwidth to work on Halo Wars 2 with other development efforts taking priority.This doesn't mean the team won't revisit Halo Wars 2 in the future – we'll never say never - but it does mean that these requests are things the team is unable to commit to for the foreseeable future. Who knows, maybe they will be able to focus on some of the requests in the petition later down the road, but at this time, in the interest of transparency and open dialog, we just wanted to be up front and realistic that there are no current plans to do so.Thank you for all your feedback and requests for even more awesome with Halo Wars 2 – and thank you for the amount of passion and continued interest you show towards the title and the Halo Wars community. We look forward to hopefully being able to work with the community on Halo Wars again in the future.
It's a crushing shame that Microsoft isn't prepared to invest in its Halo Wars 2 franchise, particularly since the company seems to want to tout itself as a games-as-a-service company. No games last forever, but Halo Wars 2's abandonment seems premature, especially in a world where titles like No Man's Sky, Final Fantasy XIV: Realm Reborn, and Rainbow Six Siege were all able to turn around and become big success stories.
Steam at the absolute minimum could've breathed new life into Halo Wars 2, allowing for mods and that sort of thing. At least at the moment, it looks like it's simply not meant to be.
Halo Wars has never been better
Halo Wars 2: Complete Edition offers a staggering amount of quality content at a great price, giving you access to what is, without a doubt, the best RTS game on Xbox Live.
