Helldivers 2 looks set for an unlikely Halo crossover after a new trailer teased the arrival of the ODST.
Arrowhead’s hugely successful PC and PlayStation 5 third-person shooter launches on Xbox Series X and S on August 26 as the first Sony-published game on Microsoft’s console. The trailer, below, ends with what looks like the arrival of an ODST on a rain-drenched battlefield, alongside the iconic music from the game. It’s all very ODST!
The Bungie-developed Halo 3: ODST came out exclusively on Xbox 360 in 2009. You play as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, or ODST, during and after the events of Halo 2. So, this is not the chance to play as what would be an over-powered Master Chief in Helldivers 2, rather a pretty powerful standard soldier.
The next obvious question is whether this ODST crossover will come alongside other Halo items, such as its iconic assault rifle and perhaps even the Warthog. Helldivers 2 seems particularly suited to a Halo crossover of this kind, so it will be interesting to see just how far it goes.
Arrowhead announced Helldivers 2’s Xbox release date last month (bizarrely, it comes out the same day as Microsoft releases Gears of War: Reloaded on PlayStation 5). In a post on Xbox Wire, Helldivers 2 Game Director Mikael Eriksson commented on what this launch means to the studio.
“We know gamers have been asking for this for some time and we are so excited to bring more Helldivers into our game,” he said. “We have so much more in store for the future months and years – and the more players we have the more stories we can tell! The fight for Super Earth has only just begun.”
Crossplay across all platforms is confirmed, which means PC, PlayStation, and Xbox players will be able to play together.
Helldivers 2 launched on PC and PS5 in February 2024 and was a rare live service smash hit for Sony. It is the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time, shifting an incredible 12 million copies in 12 weeks. While player numbers on Steam, which Valve makes public, remain healthy a year-and-a-half on from the record-breaking launch, the Xbox release will no-doubt boost the player pool even further.
The timing of Halo in Helldivers 2 coincides with Halo also being featured in Fortnite, during a bug-infested season that some Arrowhead developers have said is basically a Helldivers-themed Fortnite. “Hmmm… it’s giving ‘we have Helldivers at home,'” community manager Katherine Baskin wrote on the game’s Discord, before adding: “I’m not worried.”
As for Halo, Microsoft has teased more on what’s to come in October.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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