With Halo: Reach finally coming to PC this year, it was only a matter of time that we'd learn something about the next game in the Master Chief Collection heading to PC. While 343 Industries isn't ready to talk release dates, the company has announced that Halo Insider testing for Halo: Combat Evolved will begin shortly after the holiday season.
A port of Anniversary Edition (which originally released on Xbox 360 in 2011), 343's community director Brian Jarrard noted that porting the game to PC has been more "challenging" than the team anticipated. Most of that comes from how old the source material is, with the engine being based on architecture that is no longer in use.
Speaking with PCGamesN, Jarrard stated, "We're taking a game that's very old, and we're trying to update it for this platform – making it run at 60 fps, 4K – but also trying to account for all the requirements that PC gamers expect nowadays. That's things like uncapped frame rates, an FOV slider, and support for different aspect ratios."
The current plan is that 343 will wind down after the release of Reach and take the holiday to break. After it returns to the office, work on Combat Evolved will start and an Insider beta will be pushed out shortly after. It's unlikely for this port to take another year to complete, but it's much harder than people realize to make happen.
The thing is, expectations for Combat Evolved on PC aren't as high as the other titles. The original Halo hit PC (thanks to Gearbox Software) in 2003 and has gone on to be supported by the community through a "Custom Edition" launcher. Halo 2, as well, launched the "Games for Windows Live" program in 2007 and let players continue the fight on their preferred platform.
It's all of the other games in the Master Chief Collection that players are eager for. Despite starting off as an RTS series on Mac, Halo has mainly shied away from the PC realm. With Microsoft putting its full support behind this effort and making sure 343 has the time to do these ports justice, there's a good chance Halo will become stronger than ever on PC.
Source: PCGamesN