Halo 2 set to be Xbox' Pillar of Autumn as date slips again

Bungie's hugely anticipated sequel to best-selling Xbox launch title Halo: Combat Evolved is now due to arrive this autumn, Microsoft has confirmed, marking a further slippage only weeks after the game was scheduled for summer.

A post on Bungie's website stated that the company was "confident" that the game will ship in autumn 2004, while Microsoft later confirmed that it is scheduled for the latter part of the year, although no firm date has been announced.

Although many fans and commentators alike expected Halo 2 to ship in time for Christmas last year, Microsoft maintains that this was never on the cards, with the game being scheduled for spring 2004 all along. The company recently revised this to summer 2004 on its American release schedule, only weeks before this latest reschedule.

The original Halo remains the best selling game on the Xbox by far, with over four million copies sold to date. Microsoft will no doubt be expecting big things from its sequel, which it claims improves significantly on the graphics and gameplay of the first game, as well as adding Xbox Live support for multiplayer gaming.