Microsoft Shutting Down Attempts to Break Into Russia-Only Halo Online

North American and European modders are being thwarted by Microsoft in their attempts at trying to gain access to Halo Online, a free-to-play, Russia-only and slightly updated version of Halo 3's multiplayer for PC.

Microsoft has been cracking down with DMCA notices at trying to stop widespread access to the Russia-exclusive version of Halo Online, TorrentFreak reports. An online team of modders named TF is trying to provide a free version of Halo Online without any location restrictions, but Microsoft is fighting hard at trying to make sure that doesn't happen. Microsoft Studios has remained tight-lipped that it does not have any plans to bring Halo Online to Western audiences. Of course, the PC modding community has been working hard to get a chance to play it. A leaked copy of the game resulted in it spreading across Github, but Microsoft has been cracking down on these leaked versions of Halo Online with DMCA takedown notices. Halo Online is an multiplayer- and Russia-only version of Halo 3 that has been slightly upgrading for PC players to play for free, which is similar to what Activision is doing with Call of Duty Online, which is a Chinese PC exclusive that also provides multiplayer-only gameplay for free.

“This whole project would be completely different in an ethical way if we had taken a paid game and reversed it for everyone to access for free,” modder Neoshadow42 said.

Modders have been fighting hard at getting Halo Online playable in the West for a simple reason: gamers want a modern Halo game to play on PC. The people responsible for hacking into Halo Online admit that it's still in the early alpha stages and that there were a few assets included from Halo 1-2, but a vast majority of its contents were comprised of Halo 3 tech. They've been trying to go around these DMCA restrictions as their disregard for Microsoft's legal warnings show just how badly gamers want a new Halo game on PC.