With events happening today in cities like London, Hong Kong, New York and more and a six hour long live broadcast on YouTube, the excitement for Halo 5: Guardians is at fever pitch. The launch is the first of it’s kind– a truly global event that intends to bring together fans worldwide to join in the big countdown to 12 am EST, when the game officially goes on sale in North America.

Millions of our fans around the world are waiting in anticipation of the launch of Halo 5: Guardians, so we wanted to do something special for them and launch a video game in a way that has never been done before, said Aaron Greenberg, head of games marketing for Xbox in a blog post.  We are excited to stream the Halo 5: Guardians launch exclusively through YouTube so fans can share in a New Year s Eve-like countdown moment together.

In addition to the YouTube stream and events in select cities, there are special events for fans in all Microsoft stories, where the event will be streamed and with a $25 purchase, fans can get an exclusive game poster and a chance to get hands-on with the game early. There’s even a sweepstakes for a trip for 2 to visit Seattle and tour both Xbox and 343 studios.

Halo 5: Guardians is the game we have always dreamed of making, and it was important to us that Halo fans in every corner of the world could join us in an epic-scale launch celebration, said Bonnie Ross, corporate vice president and head of 343 Industries. Whether they tune into the live broadcast on YouTube or come out and celebrate with us in person at one of our global fan events, we hope Halo Nation will help make Halo 5: Guardians the biggest game launch in Xbox history.