

Halo: Spartan Assault originally launched in 2013 for Windows 8 and Windows Phone before hitting Xbox consoles, and it depicts events that take place between the massively successful Halo 3 and Halo 4-albeit with different lead characters. And with Microsoft expanding its focus beyond its own hardware, we now have both Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Spartan Strike on iPhone and iPad, although neither closely resembles the frantic, multiplayer-centric first-person shooters that have helped define the Xbox experience.

Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog ended up appearing on Nintendo platforms years after the heated 16-bit rivalry, and now Nintendo is working on bringing its own beloved franchises to smartphones and tablets. It’s part of the reason why gamers can be so brazenly fanatical about their platforms and franchises of choice: Exclusive games are the most powerful weapon available for console makers.Įventually, however, business realities win out.

#Halo emulator mac software
Exclusive software is used to sell hardware outside of games, of course, but with games you have characters and stories, and true experiences that you come to love and even align yourself with. Maybe it’s because of the incredible importance placed upon exclusives in the gaming world. Still, none of the prior releases surprised me half as much as last week’s sudden announcement that Microsoft had dropped not one, but two iOS games in the massively popular Halo sci-fi shooter series. Microsoft’s kinder, gentler turn in recent months has seen the company bring many of its familiar apps to other platforms, with robust versions of Office and Outlook leading the charge to the iOS App Store.
