Classic Halo 2 online matchmaking is back from the dead

Modders are bringing the original Halo 2 multiplayer back to life, and it’s enough to make a grown man cry.

2024 seems to be the year of multiplayer revivals, as today marks the launch of the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection, a port of the OG Star Wars Battlefront games for modern consoles.

Check out the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection below

That’s not what we’re talking about today though, especially since at the time of writing players are struggling to even play the game due to awful server issues.

No, today we’re talking about Halo 2, specifically the multiplayer which is being brought back to life by a dedicated, and talented, team of modders.

Now the elephant in the room is you can already play Halo 2’s multiplayer via Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which features an improved resolution, frame rate and other modern touches/additions.

But that is not the original multiplayer, which is being resurrected by Insignia, a third-party company that’s in its own words a “replacement for the Xbox Live functionality on Original Xbox consoles.”

Recently the team announced on Twitter that a public beta for the relaunched Halo 2 multiplayer will take place on 15 March, which is tomorrow.

The multiplayer beta will give gamers the chance to play the real Halo 2 once again, after the servers were shut down in 2010.

The server shutdown was a historic moment for fans, mainly because a group of players decided they’d be there to see it happen.

These players became known as the Noble 16, with the last player standing being apatche n4sir who left his Xbox switched on for a month for the sole purpose of delaying the server closure.

It seems their sacrifice wasn’t in vain though, as soon the OG multiplayer will return in all of its glory provided the beta goes well.