Despite Microsoft shooting down rumors of “Halo 3” coming to Steam, recent news suggest the game will arrive on the popular digital download store.
Back in February, a NeoGAF user found an assortment of games registered on Steam; one of which was "Halo 3". Even though most of the leaked games later arrived on Steam, Microsoft claimed they had no plans to release the third “Halo” game there. However, Gamechup found the codes for “Halo 3” in the AMD 13.3 Catalyst beta driver. There’s also an official “Halo 3” group on Steam that takes you back to the community page after clicking on it.
When a Twitter user asked Certain Affinity, the co-developer of “Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary,” if they were working on “Halo 3” for PC, they replied “We plead the 5th :)” Not a definitive answer, but a surprising “wink” response from the Texas based team made up of former Bungie employees.
Perhaps the strongest case that “Halo 3” will arrive on Steam comes from an anonymous tipster on 4chan, who states in this archived post:
- The servers for “Halo 2” Windows Vista are being replaced
- Game for Windows Live will be removed from “Halo 2” for Windows Vista.
- “Halo 2” will drop Windows Vista and appear on iOS.
- The “Halo” trilogy (“Halo: Combat Evolved,” a fixed version of “Halo 2”, and “Halo 3”) will be available on Steam.
While anonymous posts on 4chan should always be taken with a grain of salt, the poster’s claims have some believably to them. For example, the servers for “Halo 2” on Windows Vista were extended to June until 343 Industries could find another means of support. Microsoft has slowly released their titles on Steam and will supposedly support iOS with Xbox and PC games. The 4chan poster also mentioned “Halo 3” wasn't being worked on by 343 Industries, but by a third-party company (Certain Affinity?).
Nothing is official until Microsoft and 343 Industries makes an announcement, however, these recent events seemingly indicate that “Halo 3” on Steam is happening.
