Halo Wars 2 will feature a robust, story-driven campaign and plenty of multiplayer action. While we’re not talking about the game’s story (or where it takes place in the Halo timeline) just yet, we are very excited about the way it contributes to the expanding Halo universe, and we look forward to sharing more in the future.

The last time we saw the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire in Halo Wars, they were settling in for a long cryosleep on their way home, knowing that with a little luck, they’d make it back to civilized space in one piece. Nearly 30 years later, they’re awakened to a new threat to the Halo universe and find themselves as the one thing standing between hope and annihilation. Halo Wars 2 will take you back to the Ark, introduce new heroes and villains, and deliver a new multiplayer mode that has the potential to push the real-time strategy genre forward.

Beyond the terrain and the world in which Halo Wars 2 takes place, its compliment of heroes and villains helps broaden the world. And because the UNSC Spirit of Fire and its crew are essentially in a place out of time, having been asleep for 28 years, they’ve missed all of the recent events that the Master Chief was a part of. This creates a unique setting for new players to the series, as they will be learning about the state of the universe alongside the crew of the Fire.

Halo Wars 2 is also getting enhanced for Xbox One X with visual upgrades that will also take advantage of what the newest console has to offer. But perhaps what’s even more exciting for Halo Wars 2 players are the two other additions coming to game – for everyone, on all platforms – with this next update.

Support for Xbox Arena will be rolling out which will let players organize and conduct their own online tournaments in Halo Wars 2. Xbox Arena on Xbox Live officially launched in May and the 343 team has been working closely with our partners at Creative Assembly and on the Xbox platform team to bring this great feature to Halo Wars 2.

As an Xbox Play Anywhere title, players have the ability to enjoy Halo Wars 2 on their console or PC, but up until now that has not included Xbox One and Windows 10 cross-platform online play. The team has worked hard to deliver this feature and final testing indicates it’s ready for release into the wild.

Cross-play, Arena support and the Xbox One X visual enhancements are all targeted for release in late October.