This article is about the real world year. For the in-universe year, see 2004.

2004 is the year Halo 2 was released.

Events

Unknown

• Bungie officially confirms the development of the Halo film.

January

• January: Microsoft conducts an internal Alpha test of Halo 2's multiplayer to test the performance of the network architecture over Xbox Live.

March

• March 15: Halo: Custom Edition is released.

April

• April 27: Microsoft purchases the domain names "halo2.com" and "halo3.com". "halo3.com" was initially held under the name "Trout & Zimmer" until switching over to Microsoft Corporation after Halo 3's formal announcement.

May

• May 10–13: A multiplayer demo is showcased at E3 2004.
• May 11: halo2.com goes live.

October

• October: The Halo 2 Cinematic Trailer is released.
• October 15: halo2.com is relaunched with a Covenant theme by AKQA.

November

• November 9:
  • Halo 2 was released in the US and Canada.
  • The Art of Halo was released.
  • Halo 2: The Official Strategy Guide was released.
• November 11: Halo 2 is released in Europe.