Finding a stream of Halo Online is getting harder and harder, as Microsoft continues to wield its ban hammer with a vengeance. Although 343 Industries insisted that Microsoft isn't looking to shut down the ElDewrito mod which makes it possible to play the shut-down free to play title, that doesn't appear to be the case, as streams have been disappearing with regularity.
"While we are humbled and inspired to see the amount of passion poured into this project, the fact remains that it's built upon Microsoft-owned assets that were never lawfully released or authorised for this purpose," 343 said in a statement, via Eurogamer.
That is technically the problem here. ElDewrito is using assets released as part of the Russian-only release of Halo Online to make the game playable for anyone. The game was never officially released however and the only way for anyone outside of the original alpha and beta tests to play it, is to use the mod.
That's not something Microsoft and 343 are happy about though -- despite the popularity of the mod.
To combat it, they have been shutting down streams of the game on Twitch and elsewhere. However, 343 has taken the surprising step of recommending ways around it. Frank O'Connor said on Twitter that streamers should rename their streams to something else to avoid the ban hammer.
Well obviously we have something to do with it - its our software, but you are right in thinking that this issue automatically escalates to normal legal processes. But they gave us a heads up and time to talk to the Dewrito folks...
— Frank O'Connor (@franklez) April 25, 2018
What's perhaps most exciting though, is that all of this may have a true purpose: setting up a real Halo PC experience, possibly with cooperation from the ElDewrito team.
This point is important "As we look ahead, we’re very excited about the prospects of an official classic Halo experience making its way to PC and we hope to be able to partner with the ElDewrito team and broader mod and content creation community" https://t.co/KVJbH5PfJI
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 25, 2018
