Halo 2 surpasses 500 million online games played

Bungie Studios has announced that its award-winning and phenomenally successful Xbox title, Halo 2, has surpassed an astonishing milestone with more than half a billion online games played on Xbox Live.

The game has been breaking records from the outset, racking up more than 1.5 million pre-orders leading up to its November 2004 release, selling in excess of 6.4 million units worldwide in just a few months following launch and clocking more than 90 million cumulative gameplay hours on Xbox Live.

A statement on developer Bungie Studios' website reads: "To clarify - that's actual games, not player-sessions. That also doesn't include games we lost because the website was down, or through other technical issues."

Halo 2 has regularly topped the list of most popular Xbox Live games, surpassing several new titles with multiplayer elements for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox 360 console. The game is not only fully compatible with the new console, but has also been given a graphical overhaul to take advantage of High Definition display.

The recent E3 expo saw the debut of a trailer for the forthcoming Halo 3, which was made available for download via Xbox Live and swiftly became one of the most popular content downloads on the service.