Lots of people continued playing Halo 2 past the midnight deadline Microsoft gave 12 days ago for discontinuing original Xbox multiplayer support. Fourteen have managed to still keep their consoles connected and running since, prolonging the game's final goodbye indefinitely.
Console overheating concerns and dropped Internet connections have whittled their numbers, but so far, neither Microsoft nor Bungie has gone in and turned off the lights. Writes Joe Campbell, who started a thread on the sit-in/tribute on the Bungie forums:
We will keep playing until we are all forcibly removed. It could be by Microsoft, Bungie, our Xbox's overheating, or just lagging out. Not for competition, not for a prize, but for the love, and memory of Halo 2.
I want to thank everyone that I've played with in the past few days, this is by far my favorite memory in all my gaming history.
A few live streams have captured several hours of footage of the Halo gamers playing long past the bell.
As of writing, the final 14 are: Agent Windex, APACHE N4SIR, sherlok 1, SieferSword, Rob2D, Detenn, z0mbie stench, Lord Odysseus11, xxMAKDADYxx, H2o Shoagie, xxBooker Dxx, DirtyCajun, AForeignObject and HiredN00bs.
