Since its debut in 2001, Halo has become the flagship franchise of the Xbox brand. The release of Halo: Combat Evolved on the original Xbox helped define the first-person shooter genre on consoles and firmly established Xbox as a major player in gaming.
In the years since, Halo has become a cornerstone of the Xbox brand, spanning numerous sequels, spin-offs, novels, comics, and even a television series. In recent months, Microsoft has made it clear that it no longer favors first-party exclusives, opting to bring its beloved franchises to the masses, even if that means releasing their games on competitors' consoles, like Sony's PlayStation 5.
Which brings us to this week's announcement: Halo: Campaign Evolved.
A full remake of the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign, this will mark the first time an Xbox game appears on PlayStation. It's set to release in 2026 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, supports Xbox Cloud Gaming and Xbox Play Anywhere, and will also be available on day one through Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
Halo: Campaign Evolved completely remakes the campaign in Unreal Engine 5 with remastered 4K visuals, and will also feature some brand-new story content and "surprises." It will also support the original two-player local split-screen experience on console, and, for the first time ever, up to four players in online co-op across Xbox, PC, and PS5.
As this marks the first time Halo will appear on PlayStation, Halo Studios felt that Combat Evolved would naturally be the ideal entry point for new players.
“We wanted to start where it all began, with the original campaign that defined Halo,” Executive Producer Damon Conn told Xbox Wire. “Starting here means people that have never played the game before will be able to understand the story from the very beginning, and that can help us chart a course forward with new Halo stories.”
Halo: Combat Evolved rebuilds the entire campaign, but keeps the spirit of the original game experience intact.
“Because this is a remake, we’ve been able to carefully rebuild almost every level and every encounter with more fidelity,” explained Creative Director Max Szlagor. “As we’re building the technology for this game, we’ve had to do it piece by piece, which included reevaluating all of the individual elements as we’re revisiting them in the original game.”
Without spoiling too much, Szlagor revealed that The Library, Halo: Combat Evolved's seventh campaign mission, is one of the areas where they've made tweaks to "create a new experience that balances nostalgia with the expectations of today’s gamers."
“We learned from Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary that there was still an appetite for things like better wayfinding, navigation, and diversity in enemy encounters,” Szlagor revealed. “In The Library specifically, which features several Flood encounters, we wanted to reevaluate the pacing and enhance the environmental storytelling. We’ve added new lines to Guilty Spark, which guide players through the level, and there’s new dialogue that gives more insight into the narrative as it plays out.”
“We’re not changing the stories, it’s about refining and adding context to this moment, and other levels like it, so players can stay on track," he assured.
It's important to note that Halo: Campaign Evolved is only a remake of the Combat Evolved campaign and will not include any multiplayer component. But if successful, I can't imagine Xbox wouldn't want to release some sort of multiplayer experience on PlayStation at some point down the road.
“We’re so excited about bringing Halo to those who may not have had chance to play it in the past,” added Conn. “At its heart, Halo is about connection, we’re thrilled to meet a new generation of players on their platforms of choice to fall in love with Halo the same way we did. We’re not trying to rewrite Halo’s legacy – we’re trying to immerse you in it like never before.”