The odd saga of Halo on the PC may finally be winding down, as Microsoft Studios announced today in the latest edition of the Halo Bulletin that the multiplayer servers for the PC version of Halo 2 will shut down in February. If you're waiting for some kind of hue and cry from the legions of dedicated Halo 2 PC gamers, well...you might be waiting for a while, as Microsoft says that they've "been monitoring the population for months, and it's been peaking consistently at approximately 20 players or less." While a small server population can feel downright welcoming, it also makes it difficult for Microsoft to justify the expense of maintaining servers, so they'll be coming down on February 15th. Multiplayer over LAN will continue to work, however.

Enjoy Halo 2 multiplayer? Better get your kicks in before February 15.

Halo as a brand has, of course, had an interesting history on the PC, as Halo: Combat Evolved was originally announced as a Mac and PC title in 1999, only to shift to an XBox exclusive after Bungie was acquired by Microsoft a year or so later. A PC port by Gearbox, eventually wound up appearing a couple of years after the Xbox version, and the same general timeline would repeat in the case of Halo 2. The game originally launched on the Xbox in 2004, with a PC port following along in the summer of 2007. That port received some mixed reviews from PC gamers, but apparently a few diehards are still playing it almost six years later.

It seems unlikely that we'll see another Halo game on the PC anytime soon, as Microsoft has confirmed that they have no plans to port Halo 4 over, and their general strategy has generally been to use the franchise as a way to drive sales of their Xbox platform, and I'm sure that'll continue as they move towards their release of a new console. That's a shame, as the games are generally well-received on the Xbox, but of course as PC gamers we're not exactly lacking choices in the FPS genre.