Microsoft and the modding community are all full odd on Halo Online. Halo Online is the Free to Play PC Halo Experience exclusive to Russia, and has since been made available thanks to leakers in other countries. Microsoft has issued a cease and desist order to stop the distribution of the game.

Halo Online, which is built in the Halo 3 engine, includes many things that Halo 3 never had. With the inclusion the micro transactions, perks, and additional weapon variants. Modders see this opportunity to make a Halo 3 game strictly for PC which removes most of the additions made by Microsoft. Fans have been begging Microsoft to release Halo 3 for PC for near 10 years and they haven’t budged.

It appears that the group responsible for the copies does not plan or monetization at all. They are solely concerned on making a PC experience that Halo fans have been asking for. From the source of this article, it seems that they’ve taken the necessary precautions to make sure that that a copy exists regardless of DMCA orders.

Personally I feel like this is only going to ensure that Microsoft will be even more hesitant to releasing Halo Online in other countries. I do however hope that this persistence from the modding community will steer them in the direction of porting Halo 3 to the PC.

Source