Erik Johnson

Update: Bungie has confirmed that Halo 2’s online components will be put to sleep with the rest of the gang. Ahh shucks, maybe we’ll see it reworked down the road sometime.

Original Story: Microsoft has announced that Xbox Live services for the original Xbox will shut down as of April 15, with the company also confirming that all downloadable Xbox Original titles on the 360 will be losing their online functionality.

Apparently auto-renewals are to be turned off for anyone using Live on an original Xbox, but the real big question concerns whether or not Microsoft will rework the still community-rich servers of Halo 2 or if it is to suffer the same fate as the rest of the titles.

Major Nelson on the decision:

“While I can’t comment on the specifics, this change will allow us to continue evolving the LIVE service with new features and experiences that fully harness the power of Xbox 360 and the Xbox LIVE community.”

The thought coming from MS seems to be that this was an inevitability and the decision to do so will allow for better flexibility for new features down the road.