Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
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.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
