Microsoft has a huge event slated today for Halo 5 Guardians fans leading to the midnight launch. YouTube will be hosting a six hour live broadcast starting 6 PM EDT, called Halo 5: Live.
Partering with YouTube was a strategic decision, as it allows Microsoft to host different segments around the world, even as they broadcast it simultaneously worldwide. They’ve assembled a full slate of events for the event, and we’ll run down some of the highlights below:
Premiere of Halo: The Fall of Reach Episode 1. This is an animated series focusing on Dr Halsey and Master Chief’s backstory.
Roundtable with Halo 5’s writers and Nathan Fillion, who voices Spartan Buck.
In one of the craziest scheduled events, a fan from Australia will get to play it in the strangest, most unique way. He will be playing it while riding a helicopter flying Sydney, and he’ll be watching gameplay from a screen suspended by a second helicopter.
Hong Kong will have a real life course based on a map from Arena mode. Some fans will be going through the map in real 4v4 combat, presumably either with airguns, paintball, or maybe just a course race.
London and New York will have special events for fans to celebrate in, in The Roadhouse and Microsoft’s flagship New York store, respectively. The Microsoft Store event will culminate in the midnight launch.
The Microsoft flagship store tweeted about the event, linking to Facebook:
Halo 5: Guardians is almost here. Be the first to play at a Halo 5 Launch & Fan Celebration. https://t.co/PtwedEISck pic.twitter.com/6fyzo4Mz70
— Microsoft Store (@MicrosoftStore) October 25, 2015
In the meantime, Major Nelson shared a sneak preview of some more folks rehearsing with him for the launch.
Doing a Halo 5 Live show script review with @JessicaChobot @geoffkeighley & @blairherter pic.twitter.com/0IQPSasTLO
— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) October 25, 2015
You can check out the Halo 5 Live event trailer above.