Halo Wars 2 inspires a social media strategy game on Twitter

To tease the coming of video game Halo Wars 2, Microsoft Xbox and Twitter are launching a social media strategy game on Twitter. Available today, this is the first of its kind of Twitter, which will enable players to engage with each other in a card game entirely through Twitter’s new Direct Message platform.

Microsoft Xbox and Halo game studio 343 Industries have partnered with Twitter, ad agency Twofifteenmccann, and Emerging Media Technologies to create a real-time social media strategy game for promotion online video and social posts. It’s a new way of marketing a game.

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“We are thrilled to have partnered with Twitter to celebrate the upcoming launch of Halo Wars 2. By creating this community experience exclusively on Twitter, we are able to bring fans around the world a truly personalized gaming experience in real-time,” said Dan Ayoub, studio head for strategy games at 343 Industries, in a statement.

People on Twitter will be prompted to engage with Isabel (@ISA1307_2), the main artificial intelligence character in Halo Wars 2, which debuts on February 21 on Windows and the Xbox One.

In the Twitter game, playres will be invited to join via tweets. They will then be transported into a training module where they play battle cards against their friends (or the computer) in an escalating three-round war of attacks and counters.

“We can think of no better partner than Xbox to be innovating with our DM platform to engage with fans. We’ve seen businesses use our new DM features in creative ways, but this experience is the first of its kind, and with one of the most recognizable franchises in gaming,” said Ian Cairns, senior product manager at Twitter, in a statement.

Battle winners will be served unique gameplay GIFs and will receive exclusive downloadable content in the form of custom vehicle skin packs for use when the game launches. #TwitterHaloWars launched today.