GameSpy plans to shut down its multiplayer gaming servers on May 31. The shutdown will affect numerous titles, including a good chunk of the 50 games that Electronic Arts is shuttering.
Like Mortal Kombat 9, the PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved will survive the shutdown thanks to the help of developers at Bungie and several community members.
A group of fans on the Halo-Fixes message board, together with Bungie dev Roger Wolfson, are working on a patch that will remove the need for the player to communicate with the GameSpy master server for it to display available servers, as every game on the service is required to do.
“A small group has been quietly preparing for the shutdown of the GameSpy Master Server (which provides the list of Halo servers) and they are finally ready to discuss their work. The group consists of Roger Wolfson aka Sawnose (of Bungie), Btcc22 (of HAC2), Kornman00 (of OpenSauce) and myself, Technut (of PÕQ Clan),” read the forum post.
“As a result of their work, especially Btcc22 and Roger, Bungie will be releasing version 1.0.10 of Halo PC and Halo CE soon, which will include the fix for the Lobby!”
The patch has not yet been dated.
