'Halo Wars is for Germans' - Microsoft exec

By Johnny Minkley Published 29 September, 2006

Genre's 'perfectly suited'.

Ensemble Studios' real-time strategy 360 title set in Bungie's elaborate sci-fi universe was the biggest surprise of this week's X06 - and a top Microsoft exec has let slip that Halo Wars has been specifically created to appeal to our European gaming chums.

Chatting away during Microsoft's lavish post-X06 party, we were told by one top Xbox Europe luminary that, while the firm is thrilled with 360's performance so far, it still needs a bit of a nudge in certain territories.

The firm hopes Halo Wars, from the developer of Age of Empires, will give it just that. "It's for the Germans," the exec confided. "We think this genre of game is perfectly suited to Germany, northern and eastern Europe. It illustrates our desire to release games that are appropriate for gamers in all markets."

This strategy is, of course, also being employed in Japan where the US firm hopes Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, from FF creator Sakaguchi-san's Mistwalker studio, will affect a dramatic turnaround in the console's ailing fortunes.

Halo Wars, which is set before the events of Halo 1 ("during the UNSC's first deadly encounters with the Covenant," according to Ensemble), is currently without a release date.

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About Johnny Minkley

Eurogamer TV's Johnny Minkley is a veteran journalist with a lifelong passion for games and the games industry. He uses Twitter more than most people use air.

Read more articles from Johnny by visiting the Johnny Minkley archive page.

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Comments (50) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Laserbream #1 5 years ago

    DON'T MENTION THE WAR

  • itamae #2 5 years ago

    Not interested, but thanks for the effort.

  • corimi #3 5 years ago

    "It illustrates our desire to release games that are appropriate for gamers in all markets."

    Is that a bit like how Shania Twain releases different versions of her amazing albums for different regions?

    I hope, as a Britisher, that they ONLY release football and driving games here. Or Sim Ale.

  • Dark_Stranger #4 5 years ago

    Wave after wave of luftwaffer, sorry Spartens.
    Edited by 1 at 29/09/06 @ 18:37

  • Cyclone #5 5 years ago

    @ Laserbeam

    +1 ;)

    Not that interested in it on the XBox360. Would be quite interested in it for PC.

  • Freek #6 5 years ago

    MS excutive: "Hmmm, we need to make a game for the Germans...Lets think about this for a moment. What was thier main contributution to modern history and how can we tie Halo into that?"

    Next up, Sim Covenant POW Camp!

  • Freek #7 5 years ago

    It's 360 exclusive, so expect a PC version 4 years from now when nobody cares anymore to launch Vista 2.

  • Fairlane #8 5 years ago

    He could be right, asfar as Northern Europe goes. The "German" headline was either pretty stupid by EG (or maybe very Brittish), or a half assed try on getting some traffic here. EG migh get posting on the X06 previews instead
    Edited by 1 at 29/09/06 @ 19:01

  • Raziel #9 5 years ago

    'Halo Wars is for Germans'

    MS is racists!

  • Steroyd #10 5 years ago

    The title just writes itself.

  • Ihya #11 5 years ago

    X 07 is apparently held at Nuremberg, so they might have a shot at it.

  • Carrybagma #12 5 years ago

    Well then, German Eurogamers, are they right?

  • Xerx3s #13 5 years ago

    Really? With the dull Americanising closing line by the spartan I thought that they wanted to please them yanks. :\

    "If they want war, we'll give them war" (or something similar dull and macho) will really go down well with us Europeans. Yep, I can see the main headlines already.

  • Skeletor #14 5 years ago

    Jawohl! Halo Wars for ze Germans. Dankeschön, Microsoft!
    No seriously, if they want me (yes, I'm German...) to buy a 360 they better stop censoring Live for the people who were dumb/honest enough to create a German profile instead of an Austrian one. No Dead Rising demo, no Live-Arcade Doom, no SmashTV, no UltimateMK3 and to top it all...a censored version of Gears of War! Guess I'll stick to my PC...
    Edited by 1 at 29/09/06 @ 20:01

  • Fairlane #15 5 years ago

    I think you should thank you German censors

  • udat #16 5 years ago

    re: Skeletor and german censors... I imagine Microsoft are constrained by local laws. If you want those laws to change you need to start persuading your politicians to change them.

    F'n politicians... who put them in charge?

  • Skeletor #17 5 years ago

    @Fairlane
    I don't think so, the stuff is "indexed" which means it's adults only, it's NOT banned.
    They could easily make it available to the customers paying for Live with creditcard (creditcard=adult customer, no problem)! Hopefully this will change when Sony enters the arena...

  • Tabasco #18 5 years ago

    Skeletor - Or alternatively just create a second profile?? There's a fair few people on the forum who have done just that with a Jap profile.

  • Skeletor #19 5 years ago

    @Tabasco
    Yeah, that's probably the only way to solve this problem right now. Thanks for the hint.

  • ConsoleCowboy #20 5 years ago

    I'm german too. But why is this game for us? IMHO RTS is very popular in all europe/US. If there is a cliché-german genre, it would be build-up-tons-of-money strategy titles like Port Royal, Settlers or 1503 A.D.

    But hey! Maybe Humans and Covenants settle their conflicts with penalty shots! Then it would at least be more german than british. :-)

    /me is running for cover

  • Skeletor #21 5 years ago

    Btw, I'm seriously surprised that there are none of the good ol AMIGA classics on LIVE yet. Would love to see Turrican or Xenon2 rocking on LIVE!

  • Xerx3s #22 5 years ago

    Yeh, all this time they keep porting shitty japanese games while the real classics from the pc, c64, speccy, etc. are left alone. :\

  • phAge #23 5 years ago

    @ Xerx3s:

    You're right. In Europe, we only buy posh, sophisticated games, and not the inane drivel them yanks seem to fancy. Yessir! :D

  • Skeletor #24 5 years ago

    @rdexter
    Most stupid headline ever? Why? I personnaly don't think so...sure it's provocative but I seriously don't see anything bad or stupid about it. To be honest, I like the fact that MS thinks about the German gamers and their taste in gaming. I don't necessarily have this impression when it comes to Nintendo or Sony who seem to see Europe as some kind of second class market that is served when the homemarket and the Americans are satisfied. MS today is a little bit like Sega in the 90s. It just doesn't take them ages to bring an important title to Europe - I like that, even if it is accompanied by cliches from time to time.
    Edited by 2 at 30/09/06 @ 09:22

  • YourMessageHere #25 5 years ago

    Once again, the Halo factor. What, might I ask, makes Halo so worthy of notice above any other deeply average sci-fi shooter? The biggest innovations I can detect from Halo were a seperate grenade button and some quite big maps. Just what do people see in Halo?

  • Laserbream #26 5 years ago

    I'm fond of it because I once asked Iain Banks if he was aware of the startling similarities between elements of his novels and the Halo franchise and he said that he was cool with it.

    I'm a Cortana/Guilty Spark fan mostly.

  • [maven] #27 5 years ago

    itamae: It's made for Lou, not for you (and me)... ;)

  • krokomkiller #28 5 years ago

    "But hey! Maybe Humans and Covenants settle their conflicts with penalty shots! Then it would at least be more german than british. :-)

    /me is running for cover"

    Hehe, wonderful one mano.

  • spongebob #29 5 years ago

    Those Germans sure do love their RTS games.

  • chupachups #30 5 years ago

    I can kind of see what MS is trying to do: the 360 has done well in America, it's in a totally hopeless position in Japan, but in Europe it's somewhere in-between.

    Their best chance of boosting the 360's fortunes is in Europe, and Europe is a larger market than Japan, so they're now making games that appeal to us.

    Even if MS totally write off Japan, America and Europe are still big enough to put them ahead of their rivals.

  • itamae #31 5 years ago

    [maven]: Yes, that's what I was thinking. But wouldn't he rather play that something something Heroes game rather than this RTS for teh kiddoz thing? :-)

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #32 5 years ago

    For you, ze Halo Var iss ofer!

  • asphaltcowboy #33 5 years ago

    "It's for the Germans," the exec confided.

    Confided as in... a secret? :p

  • Les #34 5 years ago

    Did that LOR game for 360 sell a bit? I'd say RTS and consoles in general is a bad combination (unless there's a mouse/keyboard control option available). On a side note, never understood the S in RTS. This kind of game is more of an exercise in agility than in strategy (or maybe that's just my poor command of the genre). Turn-based, like Advance wars and FFT, is way better suited to the console.
    Edited by 1 at 30/09/06 @ 16:27

  • lostmilton #35 5 years ago

    Zere shouldn't be any games for zouse germanz, ze only gratitude zey know is invasion.

    Also germans should be banned from this site, because they always write the rudest comments. (and they aren't really europeans anyway).


    lol, jk

  • chupachups #36 5 years ago

    "On a side note, never understood the S in RTS. This kind of game is more of an exercise in agility than in strategy (or maybe that's just my poor command of the genre). Turn-based, like Advance wars and FFT, is way better suited to the console."

    Yes, RTS always seemed more like a new spin on the Lemmings formula than a simulation of a conflict. There's nothing wrong with that, but it lends itself more to instinct than thought.

    And yes, RTS without a mouse or touchscreen (or indeed the Wii controller) doesn't seem that wise.

  • UncleLou #37 5 years ago

    On a side note, never understood the S in RTS. This kind of game is more of an exercise in agility than in strategy (or maybe that's just my poor command of the genre).

    Undoubtedly, "agility" plays a bigger role than it maybe should. But I suggest you take a look at a good forum for a real-time strategy game, and you'll realise pretty soon how much strategy is involved. The ideas people come up with are often nothing short of amazing, and have nothing to do whatsoever with clicking fast. It's just a common misconception from people who never seriously played them that it's all about clicking fast.

  • Xerx3s #38 5 years ago

    ph4ge: lol. :)

    YourMessageHere: Did you even bother to consider that it might be more than that if so many ppl like it? Oh and trolling won't win you any souls.

  • chupachups #39 5 years ago

    "The ideas people come up with are often nothing short of amazing, and have nothing to do whatsoever with clicking fast"

    ...so in that case there's no need for it to be in real time then? :)

  • UncleLou #40 5 years ago

    The reason is that it's fun, and many people love it. I love turn-based games, too, but they both have their place, and offer different gamplay (and different possibilities to apply different strategies). How would you want to make, for example, the Total War series turn-based?

    Besides, the origin of battle strategies are - who would have thought it - battles. Do you think Hannibal or Napoleon fought turn-based? ;)

  • JediMasterMalik #41 5 years ago

    They should at least have a PC version in the works, it is by far, the larger RTS player base, not having that is a bad move, though, being halo, it won't have any problems selling. Which is why it pisses me off that no PC version is in the works, the 360 version will sell well enough for them. :(

  • Les #42 5 years ago

    "How would you want to make, for example, the Total War series turn-based?"
    I love that series, but that one is real strategy IMO: turn-based when managing your territories and you get to select the troops you will use for the tactical battles.

    "Besides, the origin of battle strategies are - who would have thought it - battles. Do you think Hannibal or Napoleon fought turn-based? ;)"
    The planning of a real battle would probably be better resembled by a turn based game element with people taking their time to analyze the battle field, choosing and positioning the troops and analyzing strengths and weaknesses of the enemies. When the actual battle unfolds, it gets more tactical and this part is best resembled by a real-time game element. In other words, Total war is the perfect strategy game. :)

    But games like Age of Empires, Command & Conquer are more the click-as-fast-as-you-can types (or rahter, learn a lot of keyboard shortcuts and learn the opening build/recruitment sequence by heart because if you make one mistake during the opening, you'll be at a serious disadvantage in the end game). But with two players of equal dexterity (and good memories) actual tactics will come into play, must admit that.

  • UncleLou #43 5 years ago

    (or rahter, learn a lot of keyboard shortcuts and learn the opening build/recruitment sequence by heart because if you make one mistake during the opening, you'll be at a serious disadvantage in the end game).

    Agreed, that is a problem, and while most a little more sophisticated RTS games try to circumvent it, noone has found a recipe against it, yet. Interestingly enough, Defcon manages to avoid it (but then it is a comparatively simple game anyhow, ie has no resource gathering etc.).

    However, this problem isn't that different from turn-based games. Take the mother of all turn-based games, chess. A player who hasn't learned dozens of opening sequences by heart is at a serious disadvantage to the player who has, because you can't reconstruct just by thinking hundreds of different best moves (before the game opens up, so to speak).

  • ratso #44 5 years ago

    give us a keyboard and mouse ffs. most people in the civilised world are familiar with these devices, they wont frighten people away from the console.

    + release patches for already released games to add support for these.

  • tjs #45 5 years ago

    I guess this is why they stomped on the free RTS that halo fans were developing.

  • Xerx3s #46 5 years ago

    Well, they do like big wars. Although another exec told me they weren't very good at winning such games. Things never change ;0

    Haha..oh. :\

    give us a keyboard and mouse ffs. most people in the civilised world are familiar with these devices, they wont frighten people away from the console.

    Who says that a mouse(ish thing) is out of the question? Didn't MS talk about 'new devices for the 360 that they where working on' a while back?

    Personally, I really don't get why they can't just release a good rts/wireless mouse bundle.

  • YourMessageHere #47 5 years ago

    Xerx3s: I'm not intending to "troll", I'm just totally nonplussed by Halo's popularity. I genuinely don't understand, whereas it seems everyone else does. Thought someone out there might want to share the secret of Why Halo Is Popular with me. Now I have a little more idea.

    To me, it's a sci-fi FPS with a mediocre plot; of course I've considered it might be more than that, that's why I played through the first one, and as a result was highly underwhelmed. Because lots of people like something does not mean it is good, as everyone well knows.

    I can only assume the universe that Disc refers to emerges more in the second game. Iain Banks is one of my favourites, but the similarities didn't seem all that striking beyond the idea of a ring-shaped world and a controlling AI entity. Culture novels are generally several orders of magnitude more complex than Halo seemed to be to me.

  • Baz_Dude #48 5 years ago

    Yourmessagehere, ply the game online, thats where its so popular from (the second game) where as Halo CE was a game that had a great story and also great graphics for its time

  • Darkedge #49 5 years ago

    So Microsoft say they are making games for one area of the world - damn good thing actually as gamers and people are different all over the world so companies should be catering for different audiences.

    Yeah USA we do like different thgings to you - there other places outside the borders of the US and they don't go all the way round to china on BOTH sides (not forgetting the terroist states - anywhere else).


    I'm sorry but every idiot who has
    A) Taken the piss out of the germans
    B) thinks microsoft is stupid for doing or even saying this
    IS wanting EA to be the only games company in the world..

  • kangarootoo #50 5 years ago

    "So Microsoft say they are making games for one area of the world"

    They didn't say that. They said that Halo Wars was the kind of game that suited some audiences more than others, and they expect sales in Germany to be high.