It's arguably every gamer's dream to see some of the items and vehicles used in their favorite video games created in the real-world. While seemingly impossible in most cases, a recent interaction between billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and Xbox might just result in an exception in Halo's Warthog.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has long been known as a purveyor of futuristic technologies, pioneering the way towards commercial space travel and zero-emission vehicles. Musk has most recently utilized one of his companies, Neuralink, to get two monkeys to play mind Pong with each other via a brain-implanted chip.
The potential partnership spawned at the tail-end of last month, with Musk revealing on Twitter that he's a fan of Xbox's flagship franchise. When another user asked Musk if there's any console games he's played or is a fan of, the billionaire responded "Only Halo." This prompted a response from Xbox Marketing GM Aaron Greenberg, who very overtly suggested a collaboration between the two. Greenberg initially tweeted that a collab needs to happen, "at some point", before elaborating that the idea would be a "dream collab for me and many fans I know." The Xbox head further encourages the idea, urging Musk to speak up to enable the dream to become a reality.
The Warthog is the Halo franchise's most iconic vehicle, present in every single game since the series' inception. The trusty all-terrain, turret-mounted transport holds a special place in the hearts of many longtime players, and has long been a point of desire to own as a real-world ride. While one dedicated fan managed to build a real world Halo Warthog several years ago, this new proposition could potentially make Master Chief's land vehicle of choice commercially available. Many fans believe this would be a fairly easy thing for the Tesla CEO to do as well, considering the comparisons his Cybertruck has drawn to the UNSC transport. Aaron Greenberg himself even included the hashtags "#Cybertruck" and "#Warthog" together as part of his proposition, inferring the translatability.
The Warthog will again be returning in Halo's highly anticipated next entry, Halo Infinite, with some added customization. Despite the infamous year-long delay of the intended Xbox Series X launch title, developer 343 Industries has gone a long way to restore the faith of Halo fans everywhere. Players have been able to bank a variety goodies to use when the game launches, including various armor and vehicle skins. 343 is also posting monthly updates, as a means to stay transparent in the final stages of Halo Infinite's development.
At the time of writing, Musk has yet to respond to the proposition, but Halo fans are holding out hope that the collaboration happens. Even if it doesn't gamers have another shot at riding in a real-life Warthog. A contest is giving fans the chance to be an extra on the upcoming Halo live-action TV series, which includes a ride in the legendary vehicle.