Bungie confirms free clan support in Halo 2

Forthcoming Xbox title Halo 2 will feature free support for the clan management and statistic tracking features of Xbox Live 3.0 when it arrives next November, developer Bungie has confirmed.

The company was responding to allegations on a number of Internet sites which suggested that the clan management systems would be available subject to an extra charge on the user's Xbox Live account.

"We don't normally address rumours one way or the other," the Microsoft-owned studio said in a statement, "but this one was so ill-conceived and mean-spirited that we felt it necessary to cut it off at the pass. Halo 2 clan content will be a normal aspect of the Xbox Live service, and will incur no extra costs for the user."

Halo 2 is due to be launched next November, with the date finally being confirmed by Microsoft's Peter Moore just ahead of the E3 trade show in Los Angeles last week.