Microsoft’s new Halo arcade game lives inside a giant coin-operated machine
It’s not quite the Halo 6 that many Xbox fans are hoping to see at E3 this year, but Microsoft is revealing a new Halo game today. Halo: Fireteam Raven is an arcade version of Microsoft’s popular first-person shooter, and it’s housed inside a giant coin-operated arcade machine. 343 Industries, Raw Thrills, and PlayMechanix have all teamed up to bring this arcade version of Halo to life, with a 130-inch 4K screen that lets up to four players fight Covenant enemies, vehicles, and spaceships.
Halo: Fireteam Raven is set in the timeframe of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Fireteam Raven are a group of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST) and they fight alongside Master Chief and the UNSC against Covenant forces. Arcade players will be able to man four turret-mounted machine guns, and be able to use original guns like the Needler and vehicles like the classic Warthog. Gamers can even scan a QR code to connect their arcade gameplay with the online Halo Waypoint service.
“Arcade games are a wholly different challenge compared to console and PC gaming, and we’ve learned a tremendous amount as we worked with Raw Thrills to make this happen,” says Kiki Wolfkill, Head of HaloTransmedia at 343 Industries. The game has been in development for years, and players will get their first glimpse at Halo: Fireteam Raven this summer at Dave & Busters in the US and Canada. Microsoft is planning to expand to more arcade locations later this fall, and hopefully by that time we’ll know a lot more about the next major installment to Halo on Xbox.