With all of these reasons, Halo Online‘s release as a Russian exclusive free to play first person shooter that’s only available on PC sort of makes sense. What if that’s not the main reason it’s only available in Russia though. There are other games, like the aforementioned Warface or Survivarium that recently entered Steam’s Early Access program, which are available globally, not just in Russia. What could have possessed the minds at 343 Industries, Innova Systems, and Microsoft itself to only release this game in one region.
We all know that Halo 5: Guardians is coming to Xbox One later this year, October 27 to be precise. Many people are going to be buying that game just to leap headlong into the multiplayer component. Having Halo Online available in the wider PC space would pull people away from buying Halo 5 if they also owned a PC. We’re assuming that they’ll both be as good as each other here. They probably won’t but still, keep that hat on. It’s not outside the realms of reason to consider that maybe, just maybe, Microsoft want to keep Halo Online in Russia because they would like players in Europe and North America to pay $60 for Halo, alongside paying for an Xbox One.
See, this is what happens when you start thinking about something and don’t stop at a reasonable point. With all that being said though, there’s nothing necessarily stopping those involved in producing Halo Online from releasing it onto PC’s worldwide at some point in the near future. The product that’s currently available is a closed beta. They may be testing the waters in Russia before going global with Halo Online.
Global arrival of Halo Online may have actually been planned, only for the powers that be to pull it back after the recent financial crisis in Russia. During the latter half of 2014, the Russian Ruble’s value plummeted. Likely due in part to the sanctions imposed upon Russia due to events in Crimea and the falling price of oil, this caused the local currency to fall sharply. Without going into all the economic chatter we’ll just say this.
A low currency value meant that games were much cheaper in Russia. This is part of why games suddenly started being sold digitally in Russia only, as they may only cost $20 where the North American version cost $60. A company that sells to both markets doesn’t want that kind of saving to be possible, so by separating the products they saved themselves serious losses. This could have influenced the choice to make Halo Online a Russia-only release, as bringing it out worldwide would put players in the west at a disadvantage simply due to the value of in-game goods.
What the future is for Halo Online we may not know until it is thrust upon us. Whether it’ll be a pay to win experience that favors the rich to the skilled or a completely fair arena where you pay for cosmetic upgrades is still yet to be finalized. Whether it’ll actually be any good is still a complete mystery. All that we know right now is that Halo Online is coming to Russian PCs soon, and some of us out here in the Western market think that we’d like a piece of the action too.
