#TwitterHaloWars

Halo Wars 2 breaks the conventions of real-time strategy games with its new fast-action Blitz mode. So for the launch, we needed a campaign as lightning-quick and genre-defying as the game itself. That’s why we partnered with Twitter to create the first game played entirely through Twitter’s new Direct Messaging platform. It was recognized by Twitter as the best use of direct messaging by any brand in 2017.

It all started with a tweet for help from Isabel, a new A.I. from the Halo Wars 2 story arc. 

Then the Halo-verse went crazy answering her call. 

Players were served hundreds of possible card combinations to battle against their friends or the computer in an escalating three-round war. 

Isabel responded to players' moves in real-time with custom DM tweets. We built a crazy, massive back-end to support this interactivity, with thousands upon thousands of lines for every possible scenario.

In doing so, Isabel became the first-ever character from the Halo-verse that players could have a conversation with.

At the end of each match, winners could share custom GIFs of their final battle-winning move. These are just four of dozens players went wild collecting, along with codes for exclusive vehicles redeemable in-game.

In the end, over 54,000 battles were played with an unheard of 94% completion rate. 

And even Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey got in on the action, stating "this is our favorite use of the new direct messaging platform to date."