Delta Force to support 50 Xbox Live troops

While the phrase "Support Our Troops" may have been thrown around indiscriminately on bumper stickers around the country during the crisis in the Middle East, Microsoft and NovaLogic have taken it to heart.

NovaLogic today revealed that its forthcoming Xbox game, Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, will support up to 50 online players per session, shattering the Xbox Live standard of 16 concurrent players and making it the largest gaming session available to Xbox Live users. The game is scheduled for release on April 26 and is being developed by UK developer Climax.

NovaLogic previously laid claim to the world record for most concurrent players in a first-person shooter with 160 gamers playing its PC game Joint Operations, a notion that was challenged by Sony Online Entertainment's PlanetSide.

Black Hawk Down, based on the 2003 PC game, not the Ridley Scott movie, will offer eight multiplayer game modes across different environments, but no details on specifics have been released. For those who opt not to engage in the social slaughter, there will also be a 16-mission single-player campaign.

Set in 1993, Black Hawk Down covers the perilous Operation Restore Hope and Task Force Ranger campaigns that ended with tragic results in Mogadishu, Somalia. As an elite member of Delta Force, gamers will engage in several missions against Somali insurgents.

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down is rated T for Teen and will retail for $49.99. For more information on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage, or read the full review of the PC version.