343 Studios has finally announced on Wednesday, effective September 8th this year, you can use Forge, the map editor for Halo 5 on Windows 10 PCs.
“On September 8, Halo’s most powerful and accessible world, level and game creation suite arrives as a free download via the Windows Store on Windows 10 PCs. Halo 5: Forge lets map makers, creative visionaries, and Spartans of all kinds build, share and play new levels, maps, and experiences across Windows 10 PC and Xbox One,” wrote Tom French, UGC (user generated content) Director, 343 Industries. French also stated that free content for Halo 5 on the Xbox One will be coming to Windows 10 PC as well.
“On the same day, the ninth free content release for Halo 5: Guardians on Xbox One – Anvil’s Legacy – will deliver significant updates to Forge mode on console that complement the Windows release, as well as two new maps, new weapons, new weapon attachments, customization options and more.”
Aside from allowing you to make maps for Halo 5, there’s support for keyboard and mouse, higher resolutions including 4K, and the ability to host and play custom matches for upto 16 players along with a new content browser that works across platforms. Needless to say, you can download levels from the Forge community created on both Windows 10 and Xbox One that you can customize or simply make your own from scratch.
If you’re wondering why Halo 5 in totality isn’t coming to Windows 10, 343 Industries explained this back in May.
“It’s not “full Halo 5″ because that would wreck production schedules and be a year too late and the game (Halo 5) wasn’t originally built or designed for both platforms in the first place,” said Frank O’Connor, Franchise Director of Halo at 343 Industries. He then teased what to expect next from the Microsoft-owned studio with Halo Wars 2 – a real-time strategy based in the Halo universe.
“Halo Wars 2 was built from the ground up for PC and console and, without committing to anything else in this thread, is a better example of what to expect from 343 and PC support in the future.”
With Halo Wars 2 under development at Total War hit-maker Creative Assembly and being overseen by 343 Industries, O’Connor’s statement could allude to more collaborations with other developers in the future, which could possibly see some of the earlier games in the Halo series coming to the PC. Or maybe just bringing Halo 5 to the PC at a later date.
[source: Gadgets 360]
