You Could Win $1 Million For Playing At The Halo World Championship Series

More companies are starting to take part in eSports since it's become a multi-million dollar industry all its own. Microsoft is attempting to revitalize the e-sports scene for Halo by reinvigorating it with a $1 million world championship tournament this winter.

During Microsoft's Gamescom 2015 press conference they announced that Halo would be dominate once again in the e-sports scene. VG247 caught the brief trailer announcing the return to the e-sports circles with the World Championship Series. Check it out below.

Halo used to be huge in the eSports scene back in the day, especially after Halo 2 launched and Major League Gaming was all the rage. The game not only helped make Xbox Live a global phenomenon but it also ushered in the era of competitive console gaming with a first-person shooter, which was previously relegated to the PC gaming scene.

During the Halo 2 and Halo 3 outings the franchise was turning heads and keeping players entertained. By the time Halo: Reach and Halo 4 came onto the market the e-sports scene was starting to shift. MOBAs were starting to really take over at that point and the real talk of the town in the competitive community was League of Legends. The FGC was also on the rise, with EVO getting bigger and bigger each year, gaining more followers and recognition the world around.

Things looked even more dire for Halo as Call of Duty began taking over along with Counter-Strike. PC was taking back the throne in the FPS genre when it came to e-sports and Microsoft was losing a grip on the market... until now.

While Halo 4 didn't really hit it off on the competitive level like Counter-Strike and Crossfire, Microsoft is aiming to change that around by putting $1 million into their own seasonal e-sports event this winter. They just wrapped up a season finals this past July as a way to give gamers a small taste of what's to come. I imagine as the fall season really starts kicking into gear Microsoft will start making the tournament scene more pronounced, especially with $1 million on the line.

This event will also help bolster the marketing appeal of Halo 5. They want to use the game's e-sports ready “Arena” mode to keep the game relevant in the eyes of competitive players. They'll be basing the World Championship Series around the Arena modes. This will work as a way to appeal heavily to the perpetually growing e-sports industry, which is valued at over $612 million in annual revenue according to a market report from Superdata Research. It's no surprise that Microsoft would want to get in on that action.

Halo 5: Guardians is set to launch exclusively for the Xbox One on October 20th, 2015.