The upgraded port of Halo 2 included in the Xbox One-exclusive series compilation Halo: The Master Chief Collection will not output at a native 1080p resolution, developer 343 Industries confirmed in an interview with IGN this week.
The porting process initially placed Halo 2: Anniversary at 720p, due to a hardware-pushing feature that allows players to switch between its original graphics engine and an updated audiovisual presentation instantly. Further tweaking allows Halo 2’s campaign to run at 1328×1080 in the retail version of The Master Chief Collection, putting it a step behind the other games in the bundle, which perform at a native 1920×1080 resolution.
Microsoft initially pledged that all games in The Master Chief Collection would hit a consistent 60 frames-per-second performance at 1080p. 343 executive producer Dan Ayoub explained that Halo 2: Anniversary’s current 1328×1080 resolution required a last-minute push from its development team.
“The campaign of Halo 2: Anniversary looked fantastic at 720p with the level of detail and clarity it gave us, but like every other aspect of the game and tech, we wanted to push it further,” Ayoub said. “So in the last weeks of development, our teams were able to meet a stretch goal and the campaign of Halo 2: Anniversary now runs 60 fps at a crisp resolution of 1328×1080, which is a significant and meaningful boost in image quality we think fans are really going to appreciate. All of the other games across the entire package of The Master Chief Collection run 60 fps at 1920×1080 native.”
