In a recent interview with EDGE magazine, Chris Butcher of Bungie Studios has publicly admitted that Bungie committed many mistakes in the development of Halo 2. Comparing the time dedicated to polish Halo and its sequel, Butcher said:

"We miscalculated, we screwed up, we came down to the wire and we just lost all of that. So Halo 2 is far less than it could and should be in many ways because of that. It kills me to think of it. Even the multiplayer experience for Halo 2 is a pale shadow of what it could and should have been if we had gotten the timing of our schedule right. It's astounding to me. I f*cking cannot play Halo 2 multiplayer. I cannot do it. And that's why I know Halo 3 is going to be so much better."
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Former Bungie team lead Max Hoberman has told GamesIndustry.biz that his new studio, Certain Affinity, won't necessarily develop games exclusively for Xbox and Xbox 360 - despite a close relationship with Microsoft.

Certain Affinity officially opened its doors earlier this week, announcing that its first project would be to develop multiplayer maps for Halo 2 in partnership with Bungie Studios and Microsoft Game Studios.

It's also planning to produce a title for Xbox 360, details of which have yet to be announced.

According to Hoberman, "Microsoft has been a great partner for Bungie, so Certain Affinity has every intent of building a strong relationship moving forward.

"We're also huge fans of the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, but it's too early to say whether we'll ultimately end up exclusive to Microsoft platforms," he added.

Hoberman spent 10 years at Bungie, where he was team lead for the multiplayer sections of Halo 2 and Halo 3 - initiating and overseeing gameplay, interface and online systems.

"What we've accomplished with Halo 3 is extraordinary," he commented. "Halo 2 turned the online world on its head, but Halo 3 is going to rip its head right off."

Hoberman's new staff members have experience of working for a range of developers including Bungie, Origin and Digital Anvil, and have worked on titles such as Ultima, Myth, Ghost Recon and Asheron's Call.

A statement on the Certain Affinity website reads: "Certain Affinity's mission is to create innovative action-oriented games set in immersive worlds. Now, lots of people say things like that, so you're probably wondering what sets us apart.

"Well, there's really nothing we can say to convince you today, but we hope that when we have something ready to show you'll decide for yourself that we aren't full of sh**. In the meantime all we can really do is point to our collective...
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Say hello to our newest friends in the game development biz - Certain Affinity. This new team founded by ex-Bungie multiplayer lead Max Hoberman is hard at work on new Halo 2 maps and a full game of their own.
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A recent post by Bungie revealed that, thanks to database programmer extraordinaire Roger Wolfson, games of Halo 2 online have 'officially surged over the four billion games played mark'. And that's in a little under two years after the game's launch.

Wolfson also notes that they're pretty close to hitting the four million unique players mark. Along with the update Bungie posted a lovely pie chart, which does more than take us back to our school days. It clearly shows that team-based games are by far the most popular.
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How fast can you beat Halo 2? In August of 2005, Cody Miller managed to take on the Flood on Legendary difficulty in 3 1/2 hours ... without dying. It's an amazing feat, so much so that the 2007 Guinness Book of World Record lists Cody's stunt.
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Friday 28 July 2006 An eight-year-old boy has bought himself a hamster after earning money as a videogames coach, giving lessons online to gamers wanting to better their Halo 2 skills. He's named the hamster Cortana after the AI character in the sci-fi Xbox shooter. The lad in question is a New Yorker who has the incredible name Victor De Leon III, but is better known on Xbox Live as Lil Poison. He is able to charge $25 per hour for Halo 2 tutoring thanks to being part of a training group ... » Read More

Last weeks top live games list is broken out two ways. Both lists are based on WW UU's on Xbox Live*
If you combine the lists, then Halo 2 would be number 1 followed by all Xbox 360 games.

Xbox 360 Top Live Games
1 Call of Duty 2
2 Ghost Recon 3
3 Oblivion
4 BFMC
5 Prey Demo
6 Final Fantasy XI
7 EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3
8 2006 FIFA World Cup
9 PGR3
10 Perfect Dark Zero

Original Xbox Top Live Games
1 Halo 2
2 Battlefield 2: MC
3 Counter-Strike
4 Splinter Cell Chaos
5 Rainbow Six 3 BA
6 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
7 Pro Evolution Soccer 5
8 Madden NFL 2006
9 Forza Motorsport
10 Splinter Cell Chaos
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This year saw the unstopable Team Boss win the Halo 2 4v4, it is also their first major tournament win since they went signed their gaming contract. In the Halo 2 Head to Head Karma took the top spot with another rather impressive performance.
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The Plantronics Halo 2 headset is now only $15, and some of the proceeds go to Katrina victims. What else do you want?
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Major League Gaming has signed the top four-man Halo 2 team for $1 million, and a leading individual pro gamer for a separate $250,000.

Team Final Boss snagged the lucrative $1 million contract, while Tom "Tsquared" Taylor signed up for $250,000. The signings are the largest ever by MLG.

David "Walshy" Walsh, team captain of the four-man Halo 2 team Final Boss said, "It's a huge honor to be part of the first gaming team to get this kind of money. This kind of contract just shows how serious MLG is about building the League. Three years ago I never could have imagined that I'd be making more money than my parents playing video games!"
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Tuesday 13 June 2006 Halo 2 is still the most popular Xbox Live title, including Xbox 360 games, according to figures released by Microsoft. For the week beginning 5 June, the top five Xbox Live titles for Xbox 360 start with Call of Duty 2 in slot one, with Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and The Elder Scrolls IV following. A coincidental list for Xbox was also released, with Halo 2 predictably taking up the top slot, followed by Battlefield 2: Modern Combat and Counter-Strike. The ... » Read More

Here are the top ten most played games on Xbox Live (based on users playing), for Xbox 1 and 360, from Major Nelson:

Xbox 360 Top Live Games

1 Call of Duty 2
2 Ghost Recon 3
3 Oblivion
4 BFMC
5 Final Fantasy XI
6 PGR3
7 Hitman: Blood Money
8 EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3
9 Perfect Dark Zero
10 Rockstar Table Tennis

Original Xbox Top Live Games
1 Halo 2
2 Battlefield 2: MC
3 Counter-Strike
4 Splinter Cell Chaos
5 Pro Evolution Soccer 5
6 Rainbow Six 3 BA
7 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
8 Madden NFL 2006
9 Forza Motorsport
10 Ghost Recon 2: SS

If the lists were combined, Halo 2 would be at the top, and then all the 360 games.
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Bungie have announced that Halo 2 has passed the half a billion barrier on its Multiplayer aspect of the game.

The number accounts for actual Xbox Live games and not just player sessions but Bungie also state this number does not include any game data lost due to website crashes or "other technical issues".
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Last month at E3, Halo developer Bungie dropped off a cargo container full of unanswered questions surrounding the franchise, but only gave us a styrofoam cup worth of explanations. This week in their update, Bungie maintained that Master Chief's return to the PC will remain a Vista-only experience, but won't take advantage of the cross-platform matchmaking that Vista's Live Anywhere service could offer. Frank "Frankie" O'Connor of Bungie explained that "the gulf - more than two years - ... » Read More

In the ever illuminating, unfailingly entertaining weekly update from Bungie.net's Frankie he once again treated Halo fans everywhere to nuggets of primo information. According to this week's update Halo 2 for PCs is finally stepped over the rainbow from black and white test version into actual color. He settled once and for all that Halo 2 will not be on Xbox Live Anywhere's service. According to Frankie: "The gulf (more than two years) between the launch of Halo 2 on Xbox and Halo 2 on PC means that a level playing field would be impossible. Add to that the fact that both versions have their controls and aiming system balanced and tuned for that system's abilities and you would have a lopsided situation at best. Halo 2 Xbox players will continue to play against Xbox and Xbox 360 players, and Halo 2 PC players will play against other PC players.
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The Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack - which - has just been made available for free download via Xbox Live. The collection of new maps for Bungie's superb shooter was originally available to buy in July, and four of the nine maps have since been made available to download free of charge. But it's now possible to grab the whole lot for free by simply signing up to Xbox Live and selecting the content download option from the Halo 2 menu. The newly-released maps are Relic, Elongation, ... » Read More

Bungie Studios has moved to permanently ban cheating in Xbox Live-powered games of . The automatically downloaded package is designed to detect hardware and software modifications to the game, such as Action Replay codes, as well as fix a number of newly discovered bugs and glitches in the online modes. Anyone found playing the game with modified Halo 2 content, will be banned from matchmaking and, as Bungie itself says, "It will be permanent, and there will be no appeal process." Anyone ... » Read More

Following on from , where we revealed the pack would be released on 28 June, new details have finally emerged regarding the exact date of the four maps planned for early downloadable release. Previously the preceding maps were pencilled in, rather vaguely, for "late April" but Bungie has finally announced the maps will be available to download on 25 April. As a bonus for Xbox Live subscribers, two of the early-release maps will be free, while the others will have to be paid for (expect to ... » Read More

Bungie has announced it plans to release an auto-update for Halo 2 today, via the Xbox Live service, in order to rectify minor bugs and completely readdress the balance of the game. In its third auto-update of Halo 2, Bungie will make the biggest changes to the weapons balance in an effort to nullify any unfair advantages certain weapons may have, and ensure gameplay is kept as varied as possible. "The scale of the auto-update gave us a unique opportunity - a chance to implement balance ... » Read More

Following on from that the Korean arm of Microsoft's official Xbox website let slip details of a new Halo 2 expansion, US retail site ebgames.com has further detailed what the pack contains. As the story broke yesterday, websites proceeded to speculate regarding the content of the game, with some even suggesting the pack would contain extra single-player levels and a proper ending for the game. We, on the other hand, pointed out it was more likely to be a collection of multiplayer maps. And ... » Read More