343 Industries studio head
Bonnie Ross pushed for
Halo 4 to be a
launch title for the Xbox One, but it instead released in 2012 for the Xbox 360. The timing left a gap in the release schedule between
Halo 4 and
Halo 5. Having previously developed
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary for
Combat Evolveds tenth anniversary, the initial plan was to release a similar standalone
Halo 2 Anniversary within the first few years of the new console's lifecycle. The collection was developed by
343 Industries,
Certain Affinity, and
Saber Interactive, with development assistance by
United Front Games and new cutscenes by
Blur Studio. Following the announcement of
The Master Chief Collection at the
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014,
Phil Spencer, head of
Microsoft's
Xbox division, stated that the collection originally began as just a remastering of
Halo 2 to celebrate its 10th anniversary. 343 Industries decided that it would be a great opportunity to release the other main
Halo titles for the
Xbox One in preparation for the 2015 release of
Halo 5: Guardians. All of the games run at 60
frames per second and have received lighting upgrades; all but the
Halo 2 remaster have a native
resolution of
1080p. On October 18, 2014, the game had been declared
gold, indicating it was being prepared for duplication and release.
Combat Evolved Anniversary is based on the high-definition
remaster of the original game released in 2011 for
Xbox 360.
Kinect and Stereoscopic 3D features from the Xbox 360 version are not supported in the Xbox One collection.
Ruffian Games was responsible for developing the
Halo 3 and
Halo 4 ports which received only a simple lighting upgrade, and an increase in both frame rate and
rendering resolution. 343 Industries designed the interfaces and online networking. United Front Games worked on the unified interface that works across all games. Coinciding with the release of
The Master Chief Collection, 343 Industries developed the Halo Channel, an
application for the Xbox One and
Windows. It is a successor to the Halo Waypoint app that was released on the Xbox 360. The Xbox One app is integrated with the collection, allowing players to access
Halo: Nightfall and "Terminal" animations, unlock rewards for the game, and launch the games directly from the app.
Halo 2: Anniversary Saber Interactive, which co-developed
Combat Evolved Anniversary, assisted in the remaster of
Halo 2s campaign. It received a complete visual overhaul. The game's soundtrack and sound effects, such as weapon audio, were updated as well. The refined
Halo 2 cutscenes, as well as two new cutscenes created to complement the
Halo 5: Guardians storyline, were produced by Blur Studio. They feature the same structure and timing of the originals, and
motion capture was utilized for the animation. "Terminals", a feature first introduced in
Halo 3, were added to the
Halo 2: Anniversary campaign. Their purpose was to create a "connective tissue" for stories within the
Halo universe that explores the relationship between the different races within the Covenant and extensively covers the events portrayed in
Halo 2. Terminals also gave 343 Industries the opportunity to introduce Spartan Locke, a main character in
Halo 5: Guardians. Visual effect studio The Sequence Group collaborated with 343 Industries to provide the animation; the group had previously performed similar work in
Combat Evolved Anniversary and
Halo 4. Several voice actors reprised their roles including
Keith David as the Arbiter,
John DiMaggio as the Heretic Leader, and
Tim Dadabo as
343 Guilty Spark.
Mike Colter provided the
voice-over for Spartan Locke. Once the
Halo 2: Anniversary project was green-lit, executive producer Dan Ayoub at 343 Industries reached out to Max Hoberman of Certain Affinity for assistance on the multiplayer component. Hoberman originally designed
Halo 2s multiplayer and founded Certain Affinity after leaving
Bungie in 2006. Certain Affinity was asked to remake several of the multiplayer maps from
Halo 2. The team found it difficult to decide how many of the original 24 maps to redesign and eventually settled on six – two small, two medium, and two large – to provide some variation. Along with the visual upgrade,
Halo 2s original score was re-recorded with the
San Francisco Symphony at
Skywalker Sound studio. Guitarist
Steve Vai returned to the franchise to play on additional tracks with
Periphery guitarist
Misha Mansoor. The
Halo 2: Anniversary soundtrack was released on November 11, 2014. == Release ==