The Halo Windows App Is Shutting Down, And Here's Why

The Halo app for Windows is no longer operational. Microsoft announced on its website that the app--which served as a hub for Halo news, game stats, and more--was officially decommissioned on August 16.

Microsoft decided to shut down the Halo app for Windows because it was "no longer a key component of our future plans and aspirations."

"As the 343 Team looks ahead and works on the future of Halo, we periodically take stock of everything we currently operate and support across the entire franchise ecosystem. As time goes by, various applications and services fall out of scope and are de-prioritized as they are no longer a key component of our future plans and aspirations," Microsoft said. "Ceasing support and operation of these legacy offerings frees up resources that can be re-deployed on better services for the future."

All of the content hosted on the Halo app for Windows can now be found on the Halo website--Halowaypoint.com and also Halo.gg. In addition to Halo news, the Halo app hosts game stats for Halo Wars 2, and these will continue to populate until February 16, 2020. However, all of these stats can also be seen in Halo Wars 2 itself and on Halo Waypoint.

The Halo app for Windows also served as the launcher for Halo Wars 2 and Halo 5: Forge. However, players will now need to launch the games from the client. "Please note that this will have zero impact to your ability to play and enjoy these games and has no impact on performance," Microsoft said.

In discussing the Halo app's usage, Microsoft only said that "a number of people" used it over the years, which makes it sound like it was not very popular.

"We hope the content it delivered helped to enrich your enjoyment of all things Halo," Microsoft said. "We appreciate your support and look forward to bigger and better things in the future."

In other Halo news, Microsoft also announced this week that it would no longer release new updates for Halo Wars 2 as the team moves on to other projects.

Microsoft's Halo development team, 343 Industries, continues to work on Halo: The Master Chief Collection (including bringing it to PC), in addition to the next mainline instalment Halo Infinite.