The announcement detailing the closure of Xbox LIVE for original Xbox games mainly affected the large community of players on Halo 2 who have dedicated up to 5 years of playtime. However, from April 15th, the Xbox LIVE service for originals will close down forever and Halo 2 developers Bungie insist it should be an “explosive finale”.

Not only have dedicated Halo 2 players been compensated with Xbox LIVE treats for the upset, - but further prizes are up for grabs on the Halo 2 Humpday finale.

Taken directly from the Bungie weekly blog:

On the eve of Halo 2’s sunset, April 14th, Bungie will be heading back into Halo 2 in full force for one last Humpday against our beloved, BXR-abusing community. And we fully expect to get our asses royally kicked by the robotic techno-wunderkinds who have made Halo 2 their online home these last five years.

If you’ve yet to come to grips with a world without Halo 2 over Xbox LIVE, make sure you get out all of your frustrations by collectively teabagging our flailing dead corpses. We won’t even demand that you to rinse out your sweaty codpieces first.

As thanks for throwing down, we’re committed to granting everyone who plays with us on the 14th a piece of visual flair for use in Halo: Reach multiplayer as a symbol of our gratitude. We’ll also be collecting a plethora of relevant stats and gifting plenty of other sweet prizes for players who take the time to throw down with us.

If you do intend on joining Bungie online for a full day of Halo 2 Commemoration Wednesday April 14th, please note that game updates and map packs will need to be re-downloaded before hand. All Halo 2 Map Packs are free to download and are required before joining any playlist.

Source: Bungie