Talking about Microsoft nowadays revolves around its third-party publishing strategy. Today, we gain some insight on how the company saw its first-party efforts before we entered this current era.
As shared on the GamingLeaksandRumours subreddit by user IcePopsicleDragon, a developer who worked on Halo 5: Guardians just revealed that Microsoft cancelled a PC port, all the way back in 2015 when it released on Xbox One.
Tyler Owens is listed on MobyGames as a Build and Release Engineer for Apex Legends at EA’s Respawn Entertainment. However, we can see that his past credits on Halo 5: Guardians as well as Halo 5: Forge. So, it’s plain to see that he had previously worked for 343 Industries.
This was Owen’s response to a fan who asked about a potential PC port:
“I wish but it’s never going to happen imo. I think the port that was being considered ran into significant tech hurdles and was scrapped.”
Originally released in 2015, Microsoft never officially shared full sales figures for Halo 5: Guardians. They did confirm in this press release that it was the biggest launch of any Halo title, and the fastest selling Xbox One exclusive title.
They also revealed that Halo 5: Guardians made $400 million in global sale, including sales of Xbox One bundles with the game. So, this is sufficient information to establish that the game had been a huge hit for Microsoft and 343 Industries.
But Microsoft, perhaps intentionally, did not give the public a figure for gamers to squabble over with other Halo games, or games made by Xbox rivals.
Since these are offhand remarks, we can’t really speak too much on how hard a PC port of Halo 5: Guardians would have been back then, or how hard it could be now. But this should make it clear to fans that the fabled story of the first Xbox being made of off-the-shelf PC parts did not apply to all the Xbox consoles.
We can imagine that if they wanted to, Microsoft could bring Halo 5: Guardians to PC in some way. The most feasible way to do so seems to be to just remake the game, perhaps using some of the original title’s assets. It certainly would not be the first game remade in such a way for the purposes of a newer release.
And maybe there is a case to do that too, with Halo Studios recently revealing they had moved development over to Unreal. Whether the Slipspace engine or other issues hampered the Halo 5: Guardians PC port, if they started over with Unreal, they could work at a better realized vision of the game.
And maybe that’s a project to be planned for a tenth generation Xbox console, as a potential launch title, and a demonstration of what Halo Studios can do with their new chosen engine.
