Microsoft closing Halo Wars website

By Robert Purchese Published 22 November, 2010

Migrating community to lose online stats.

Why is Microsoft closing the Halo Wars forums and getting rid of the game's online stat tracking? So that Halo Wars can move under the Halo Waypoint umbrella.

From 15th December, game chatter will be resurrected on Waypoint's better moderated and better supported website.

Microsoft realises that losing online stat tracking "will be rough on a lot of you", but said the decision to close the Halo Wars website wasn't made "lightly".

To make up for it, anyone migrating to the Waypoint site will get an exclusive forum avatar. Cor, lucky.

There's also an update for Halo Wars due on the same day. Title Update 5 fixes Theater issues and untangles some of the game-code that talks to the Halo Wars website.

"Unfortunately, it won't include many of the fixes that we all wanted it to include," the Halo Wars website admitted.

Halo Wars, a real-time strategy spin-off, was made by now-defunct studio Ensemble for Xbox 360 and was released in February 2009. With that brand and that developer (Age of Empires), Halo Wars was tipped to be the game that brought RTS to console - in much the same way Halo brought FPS to console.

Did it? Kieron Gillen judged for Eurogamer.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • GamesConnoisseur #1 2 years ago

    Makes sense to put everything under Waypoint, but why couldnt they just port the stats to the site?

    Still a fresh start would encourage gamers who are middle ranking to make another go at it, like me! Course if I was top ranking , would be very upset.... but I aint!

  • tossetaz #2 2 years ago

    Lazy of Microsoft to not do a proper data-migration, can't be that hard if the Waypoint site is gonna have similar stats.

  • Xboxfanuk #3 2 years ago

    Sadly Halo Wars didn't sell 25 million copies so MS thinks it must be a failure...that is why it isn't getting the treatment they would give another Halo game. They probably would if they were making another one, but I wouldn't hold your breath!
    Edited by Xboxfanuk at 22/11/10 @ 09:05

  • solidSnake04 #4 2 years ago

    this is a great game. shame i didnt have the chance to play it lots.

  • kangarootoo #5 2 years ago

    "To make up for it, anyone migrating to the Waypoint site will get an exclusive forum avatar"

    I'm not even sure what that means? Isn't that just an exclusive thumbnail picture? The same sort that anybody could have if they screen grabbed someone else using the "exclusive" one? Have I missed something?

  • migasUK #6 2 years ago

    I loved the game, and i still play sometimes 3V3 online.... sad my status will be all wiped out...could be worst.

  • altitude2k #7 2 years ago

    To be honest the online stats were really not up to much anyway. They always looked like a bit like a cheap, last-minute addition to try and somehow keep up with Bungie's efforts.

    It won't stop it being a great game. I'd be very excited for a sequel.

  • TOOTR #8 2 years ago

    Does this mean there will be no online stats going forward?

  • scottycam #9 2 years ago

    Please reduce the DLC price for this. I really enjoyed it and wouldn't mind the addon maps but they have been out for ages with no price reduction.

  • SimonM7 #10 2 years ago

    @Xboxfanuk

    "I wouldn't hold your breath!"

    Thanks for not choking anyone.
    Edited by SimonM7 at 22/11/10 @ 15:04

  • Seehuusen #11 2 years ago

    Halo Wars is the best Halo game since halo 3, so it's nice to see it getting an update. Still, i'd like to see the next Halo top my favourite game, Halo 2, which had the best campaign so far in my opinion.