Want To Play The New Halo Online? Move To Russia

It’s becoming common for publishers to take their most popular franchises and retool them for foreign markets. Call of Duty recently launched in China, and a number of EA and 2K Sports titles have special editions for that country.

The latest game to get the word “online” tagged to the end is Halo, but it’s not coming to China. Instead, Microsoft, Saber Interactive, and Innova Systems are prepping the game for Russia.

Halo Online is designed to work on lower-end PCs (and therefore remain accessible to a wider range of gamers). It’s built on a modified version of the Halo 3 engine with an new setting, the UNSC space station Anvil.

The title is slated for availability as a closed beta in the spring, with no set launch date yet. It will be free-to-play and Microsoft will be testing the economy along with mechanics during the beta period.

[Source: Halo Waypoint]

Our Take

Creating unique versions of games with a free-to-play model and modified specifications is a winning strategy in China. It will be quite interesting to watch this develop in the Russian market. I’m eager to learn more about how Russian players differ from those of us in Europe and North America, as we did when discussing Call of Duty Online with Activision.

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