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Microsoft has announced a new remake of Halo: Combat Evolved for Xbox consoles, PC and PlayStation 5. Built with Unreal Engine 5, this is a major moment for console exclusivity, crossplay and the Halo brand.
Halo is officially coming to PlayStation 5.
Announced last week, Microsoft’s Halo Studios revealed a new remake of the franchise’s first installment, Halo: Combat Evolved, slated for release sometime in 2026. The title is being built in Unreal Engine 5 and will feature all the original campaign’s content alongside three new prequel missions.
The studio has confirmed that multiplayer will not be included, though players can still jump into 2021’s Halo: Infinite on PC and Xbox, which is free-to-play and continually updated with new content every few months.
This remake will be officially called Halo: Campaign Evolved. While we don’t know all the details just yet, a lengthy showcase of gameplay from the original’s fourth mission ‘The Silent Cartographer’ has been published via YouTube. You can check it out below.
The reaction online has been expectedly controversial and heated, with long time fans already finding fault with the sprinting, ammo rounds, and graphic fidelity. Even the White House has bizarrely thrown its hat into the ring, posting memes of Trump as Master Chief (don’t ask us why).
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By far the biggest headline, however, is that Halo is finally moving to Sony’s platform. If you’re a younger Gen Zer, you may be wondering: why is this such a big deal?
Halo has historically been a flagship title for Microsoft and was arguably the biggest contributor to the success of the original Xbox release in 2001. It was the killer app at the time, and ushered in a new era of first person shooters outside of PC gaming that were accessible and easy to understand.
Comparison album between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo: Campaign Evolved [Courtesy of UberNick]
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Halo has always been synonymous with Xbox, and each iteration has been tied to a particular console.
Halo 3 in 2007 pushed sales of the Xbox 360, Halo: The Master Chief Collection boosted Xbox One sales in 2014, and Halo: Infinite was initially intended to release alongside the latest console iterations, the Xbox Series X and S in 2020, before being delayed by a year.
The brand has long been a flagship system seller alongside other big titles like Gears of War and the racing franchise Forza, both of which are now available on PlayStation as well.
Microsoft’s decision to move Halo across to PlayStation is indicative of where things are headed, and shows that the company no longer prioritises console sales nor sees itself as a true competitor to Sony in the way it once did.
The ‘console war’ era is firmly over, with Xbox beginning to lean more toward being a third-party publisher than a hardware powerhouse.
As we’ve recently published, Microsoft has come under fire over the past few years for its questionable business decisions.
From hiking up subscription prices for Game Pass to laying off staff amidst its purchase of Activision Blizzard, consumers have been baffled and concerned at the direction Xbox has taken this console generation.
Halo being an Xbox exclusive was the last stand of a bygone era, when both Sony and Microsoft were neck-and-neck in terms of market dominance and hardware sales. It’s clear that things have changed, as Xbox focuses on subscription models, cloud gaming, and portable accessibility.
