After a decade of "totally standing behind PC gaming" I don't think anyone believed Microsoft when they stated, once again, that this year they would redouble their efforts and finally treat PC as an equal to the Xbox. Yet here we are, and despite a couple of poorly thought out "features" Microsoft has remained true to their promise, much to everyone's surprise. The majority of Xbox One exclusives have already either been ported to PC or are currently in the pipeline, and the initially lackluster Windows 10 gaming environment is slowly getting the improvements it needs.
If that isn't enough to convince you they're actually serious this time around, allow me to just say that Microsoft has recently all but announced Halo 6 for the PC. This news comes from a short interview PC Gamer did with Xbox head Phil Spencer, in which they briefly touched upon the differences between the Xbox One and PC, as well as the future of the Halo series. Here's the most... intriguing quote Spencer gave:
"Honestly the answer with Halo 5 is, I can go take last year’s game, rework it to go on PC, or I can have 343 look forward in what they’re going to go do. You could say I’m cheating a little bit by doing a half thing with putting Forge on PC, because we kind of have the tools working on PC to see what happens, but this is what we did with Forza, with Apex. I said, 'This isn’t a full Forza game. Going forward, we’re going to bring our Forza games to PC complete.'"
As you can see, this isn't an official confirmation, and to be fair I doubt you'll see one for a while given how early in development Halo 6 must be in, but its still an interesting statement for Spencer to just so casually give out. Why would they invest the resources and valuable employee time in order to bring Halo map-making tools to the PC, along with the actual gameplay mechanics, if not to pave the way for the eventual return of the Halo series?
While its unfortunate we won't be getting Halo 5, the "merger" between the Xbox and Windows platforms is one of the best things to happen to PC gaming in quite a while. And if you ask me, that is well worth celebrating, Halo, or no Halo!
