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Microsoft has never issued a fully satisfying answer about why Xbox Live, almost four years after the launch of Xbox 360, cannot support more than 100 friends. The company has blamed it on technical obstacles related to the original Xbox Live architecture. It's simpler than that. The real reason you can't have more than 100 friends on Xbox Live is because of Bungie. Specifically, Halo 2.
The continued community support behind Halo 2 is the only reason Microsoft hasn't ditched the lingering ancient Xbox Live architecture, a high-level Microsoft source confirmed to me late last week.
The original Xbox Live was not designed to support more than 100 friends. That's no problem for the Xbox 360 incarnation. Allowing players to add more than 100 friends on Xbox 360 is not a real technical challenge for Microsoft, but it requires ending support for the still-popular shooter. It's not as simple as issuing a patch for Halo 2, or else Microsoft would have released one ages ago.
Looking at Major Nelson's weekly Xbox Live activity lists, the Halo 2 connection should have been obvious a long time ago. Halo 2 is always the most played original Xbox title, suggesting a healthy community still enjoying Master Chief's second adventure online, despite the existence of Halo 3 on Xbox 360. What's keeping them playing? It doesn't matter, it only matters that they are.
My source said Microsoft still does not know when it will disable support for the original Xbox Live, thus ending Halo 2's reign on the charts. It could happen after the release of Halo 3: ODST, since that would give Halo players two new Halo games to move over to on the new Xbox Live. If you want Microsoft to move in that direction, however, it requires your voiced opinion.
Microsoft will be reading this and comments elsewhere. If there's real vocal support for finally moving on from Halo 2, it could very well happen in the near future, I'm told.
But at least we know the hold up. It's a technical issue, but it's really not. It's about a community doing nothing more than enjoying their favorite game, while the rest of the world is prevented a seemingly simple interface feature. When to call it quits is a challenging issue for online games, but really, it's almost out of Microsoft's hands. Gamers have to make the decision.
I've contacted Microsoft for official comment. I'll update you if I hear anything.
What do you want Microsoft to do?
Comments are Closed
Comments
Displaying 21–40 of 149
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Mnstrboy
i dont y they dont end the halo 2 thing
and to all u people who think having 100 friends is hard its actually not its pretty simple. i have 99 friends and 86 of them r kids who go to my school n i hang with the other 13 r kids n clans or just people i met over live that were cool to talk to. so stop saying its hard to reach 100 friends cuz it really istn't.
the only reason its hard for u is because ur either a lowlife who has no friends or yeah thats just abouot it u have no friends so go get some...
Geomancy
If Microsoft could hire a studio to port Halo: CE and Halo II to the PC, why can't they hire some studio to port Halo:CE and Halo II to the 360? I love those games, and it would be great to play them with achievements. I think enough people would buy a port to be profitable.
garl3o
if Microsoft ends halo 2 that means they ended the best fps ever made that would be gay i would rather them end halo 3 before they end h2 why do u need to have over 100 friends... you dont just leave h2 alone
thai420
I can't imagine most people would have more then 100 friends unless it's just to say hey I have 500 friends like idiots on myspace do. I like the fact that microsoft still supports the Halo 2 community. It's a lot better then ea and 2k sports when the shut their servers down after just over a year to get more people to buy the newest games.
vaporypanic
with modern warfare 2 coming out there is no reason to play any halo game 1,2,and 3 will be useless
Reynold32
I would say for people who have large clans or just like to use xbox as a media tool 100 friends is not enough which mind you both of those groups maybe make 20% of live users. All together maybe it is time to get rid of Halo 2 move on to greener pastures not even saying Halo 3 or ODST. We have plenty of new and fun titles coming out over the next 4-5 months.
deshoun23
halo2 sucks because it is lame and boring also halo 3 should be on ps3 u keep halo 2 because it's lame holla
SuperGreenGuy
what does Halo 2 have to do with 100 friends?
Sudzy1225
or what they could do is keep all the people on original xbox as xbox live gold and they could upgrade all of us 360 owners to xbox 360 gold or somthing of that nature
Sudzy1225
i loved halo 2 it was my favorite halo why i dont kno but i do know that that one game is preventing many people from having more then 100 friends thus i say lose original xbox and buy a 360 al
ready
sundog660
I don't think there's any real need to have more than 100 friends, unless it's like a clan. But even then there's dead weight you could lose. On every friend list there's at least one guy that's never on line. Just start cutting your losses and stop adding random people to your friends list so you seem cool.
R3Dj0K3r
I don't think we should leave this decision to just halo fans. 14K people on halo2 20k community sites that want to host events on XBL.. Not to mention you could finally do a Game with fame without friends caps. Now when a game dev wants to host an event they can invite more and more fans to play with them. Its not like halo 2 is gone forever there is still a PC option. Microsoft should move beyond halo anyways I got my 360 for Gears of war and oblivion halo did not cross my mind at all.
nowhere2hide139
why would you need 100 friends. i already think 40 is too much
KayEmX
Halo 2 is better than most of the 360 games today including Halo 3. Please don't drop it. People still make Videos, Montages, and all that stuff. People are still enjoying a game, what's more important, a game or a friends list? Seriously.
Don't drop Halo 2.
ik694
I think that the real question is what other technical issues does this raise. If all it does is limit how many friends you can have then fine, leave it till it drops in popularity, otherwise lets talk about something more than dropping support for a game for a bigger friend list.
SilverScorpion4
Most people don't have 100 friends on their list and if they do then most of those people are just in clans and don't actually know most of their "friends." I would think far more people play Halo 2 than there are people who actually need more space for their friends.
This can be tested by simply comparing how many people use Halo 2 still and how many people are at 100 friends. And of course you'll want to look into and come up with an estimate for how many of those people actually need/want more space for friends.
I say don't kill Halo 2, but I think the numbers need to be looked at not comments, cause most people will not know this voting process is even going on let alone take the time to sit down and post a comment.
animefr33k
I say continue supporting, why? Like others have said why would you destroy the online of what made Xbox live be what it is today? That would be ridiculous and just in general not a smart move. There is alternatives if you want to play games with "e-celebs" people! Just send them a message asking them to play, not that hard to do. And if possible remake the game for games on demand with the ability to have more friends on your list. I'm sure people will buy the game if microsoft or whoever has to make it redoes the game with new updated graphics. Problem solved.
RushXx87
Halo 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, my friends and i spent countless nights playing it and we loved it, I've probably only played Halo 2 a couple of times this year max, but I do still own it and won't sell it. Xbox lives 100 friend limit has yet to affect me like others but if 10,000 plus people are playing Halo 2 everyday thats a credit to Microsoft, Bungie, Halo 2, and the fans of the game to keep playing it almost FIVE YEARS after it came out considering games like Halo 3, COD4 and other awesome online games have come out. So I say continue to support Halo 2.
BigBoi972
persanally i need a few more friends because ive had xbox live for almost 5 years now and its just the fact that during that time period ive meet 20+ people that i must have on my friends list only because of the fact that ive know theam for so long i cant delete theam! And personally if you think about it 20 million people have xbox live why is it that we can only add 100 of those wonderfull 20 million people.
travis5223
i see no reason to drop a truly fun game. in my opinion i haven't been above 70 friends, really look at your list, see those 6 guys that helped you with halo 3 cheivo's and you haven't talked to them in 8 months, it's time to let go of them. in truth we all have our circle of roughly 3-5 very good friends, 5-10 good buds, 10ish kinda buds, and the other 70 you don't know. i think this would also keep the xbox "celebs" safer, they wouldn't have to deal with upwards of 4000 friend requests a day and would let them easily go through who they know, didn't, or didn't want. i see this more of a great game, and a safety net then an interruption.
Displaying 21–40 of 149
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