'Halo Wars 2' release date news update: No cross-platform play for sequel, updated characters teased
Although "Halo Wars 2" was supposed to support cross-platform play, developer 343 Industries decided not to go through with it and had the real-time strategy (RTS) sequel set up with its newly-introduced Xbox Play Anywhere project instead.
Xbox Play Anywhere basically allows a certain game like "Halo Wars 2" to be playable on both the Xbox One and the personal computer (PC). Gamers can play on both systems, save the progress and load the game on either one.
"As we looked at our timing and our design decisions, we focused on some different things that basically became Xbox Play Anywhere," 343 Industries studio head Dan Ayoub told Eurogamer.
There are no cross-play plans for "Halo Wars 2," although 343 Industries is looking into the possibilities of cross-play in its future projects, particularly with the "Halo" franchise.
A multiplayer open beta testing for "Halo Wars 2" is currently underway. It was supposed to wrap up last Monday, June 20 but was extended up to June 22 due to overwhelming demand from fans.
"Halo Wars 2" brings back Cutter and Anders from the original RTS game. However, they look very much different from the way the special effects studio Blur designed them in the 2009 game.
343 Industries explained in a new blog post that the characters are made different "for both casting and technical reasons" as the developer used new technology.
"Those characters were created in 2008, using 2007 tech and they looked fantastic at the time," 343 explained. "But since then, the industry has made geometric leaps forward in technique and technology and the trend," the developer added.
With this, "Halo Wars 2" benefited with this new tech, allowing the characters to have "much better immersion in the story and [become] far more believable 'people' because they are people."
"Halo Wars 2" was delayed from a Fall 2016 release to 2017. A Definitive Edition will be available, which will come with an "enhanced" version of "Halo Wars," additional achievements and all the downloadable content (DLC) released for the game.
