Halo Wars on Steam is first online Halo game to rely on Steamworks

Coming to Steam. But, wait, where'd the Xbox Live requirements go? (credit: Microsoft Studios)

Might a mainline Halo game one day receive a bonafide Steam launch? Microsoft Studios tiptoed ever closer to that possibility with a Monday announcement-Halo Wars: Definitive Edition (HWDE) is coming to Steam later this week.

You're not smokin' something: Microsoft is indeed releasing its resolution-bumped, mouse-and-keyboard-supported version of the 2009 real-time strategy game on Steam on 4/20. The Steam version will cost $19.99. What's more, it's the first online Halo game to have major Xbox Live features and requirements stripped in favor of Steam's own solutions.

The release follows other official, top-down Halo games, the twin-stick shooters Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike. Those games launched on Steam in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Halo: Spartan Assault was originally designed as a Windows Phone game and only came to other platforms after its lukewarm launch had cooled. HWDE, on the other hand, is barely two months old, and its Steam launch will do a few important things. First, the game will officially support Windows 7 and 8.1, which could spur wider adoption than its original, Windows 10-only launch-especially for a game with such low system requirements (in short, Intel HD Graphics 4200) that it could run in, say, PC Bang cafi(C)s.

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