Halo: Campaign Evolved Officially Announced, Coming To Xbox In 2026

Huh. Hell has officially frozen over.

And thus the final domino falls…

Not a new game then? A remake of a remake.

@dskatter Hell will freeze over when God of War, The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man, or Uncharted, etc. come to Xbox

Can’t wait called this since that unreal 5 demo.
Keep your series x gang, will probably play better than even Pro as it’s unreal 5.
Also on GPU day one of course.

Really don’t care PS5 gets the game.
I get it on series x with GPU, cheaply stacked.

This looks so soulless and unnecessary. Like a UE5 asset tech demo.

I'll stick with my Master Chief Collection and keep dreaming of a new game instead.

It looks absolutely gorgeous. Cannot wait!!!

A remake of a remaster of a remake. Genius. This will never end.

This is a historic moment here, y’all. I don’t really have any thoughts beyond that.

Except for hating the radar in the upper right.

Can we stop with remakes of remasters? There's so many more stories you could tell from the Halo universe.....Give us a story from the covenant perspective for example similar to the arbiter parts in Halo 2

Introducing Halo to a whole new audience and leaving out multiplayer is a wild decision. Master chief collection and or infinite would have been a better choice to port to ps5. Hopefully the updates bring it on par with every other modern shooter, these players will not have the rosy nostalgia glasses on when they play it.

For xbox users it is yet another case of an update to an already updated game.

@Questionable_Duck You can already play all four of those games on the ROG Ally XBox and you will be able to play them on the next XBox console.

@OldGamer999 I thought you sold your Series X again. It's getting to keep track of what systems you have!

I am cautiously optimistic. I found the first halo to be the worst halo in retrospect.

The levels were far too open and the amount of pointless backtracking was tedious. They got the gunplay right, but generally speaking, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were all much better games.

Infinite just never did it for me, i much preferred 4-5 to it. Really wish they'd finish that story arc to be honest.

If they have cleaned up the levels and reduced the backtracking, this one could be quite good.

@BacklogBrad it's really weird considering hey said this is the last year Infinite is going to be at the championship. im guessing there's going to be some free to play multiplayer thing.

I love Halo 1's campaign, but Halo really feels like a franchise that's unable to move forward.

Visuals and gameplay look great but it’s hard for me to get excited for another rerelease of Halo 1, even if it is a full remake. Maybe I’ll get it once it’s dirt cheap.

Some people will never be pleased and are just negative to be negative. This looks great to me. It will introduce Halo CE to a whole new generation of gamers that aren't likely to play the dated remaster, and it will be a fun experience to replay it with modernize graphics and finally 4-player coop with my friends.

@RBRTMNZ Yeah, no.... Not until we see Xbox store listings for God of War, The Last of Us, Uncharted, etc. It doesn't even need to be an Xbox Series X/S port, it just needs to be on the Xbox Store, not thru Steam. You can't really say that it's on Xbox if it isn't available on any Microsoft-owned storefronts.

@BacklogBrad It's because they're making a Fortnite-like Halo multiplayer game. If Halo: Campaign Evolved had multiplayer as well, it would discourage people from checking out the other game.

@Ade117 Does it need to? Maybe a series of remakes to tidy up the plot isn’t such a bad idea

@AccessibleDaydream The symmetry of the health and ammo in the top corners has been lost to put the radar up there. They've still got time to change it hopefully.

@dskatter
"Huh. Hell has officially frozen over."

?

There's something really special about Halo that you can't find elsewhere. Actually, the only one I don't like is 5 because of the mediocre gameplay and awful level design. I love the others, Infinite included. I'm looking forward to trying the new version of the first game.

@Runex2121 I thought 5 was a good game but not a good halo game. Of all the others I loved 3 and 4 the best (just based on campaign, not a massive multiplayer guy though I did enjoy infinite)

Anyway, that's the last plaster ripped off, now hopefully we can get some positive momentum for Xbox in the coming 2 years leading into next gen

@Questionable_Duck That’s a weird purity test. I have no such qualms about what counts as a true Xbox game. If I can play it on my Xbox it’s an Xbox game to me. I will be able to play all four of those Sony games on my next Xbox.

@ElectricWizard

@dskatter
"Hell has officially frozen over"
?

Maybe it's his nod to games crossing platforms combined with PS games literally melting your face off on the Pro.

Looks promising! Seems they ditched the multiplayer, which I couldn’t be happier over. The mp achievements with their absurdly anti-achievement hunter criteria should never have existed, and this looks to correct that mistake. Put the full game on a physical disc version and make it a trifecta 👍

If every Xbox game is going to PlayStation, what's the point of buying an Xbox?

Does look good. Not played it in 25 years so may well pick it up at some point…

I hope "no multiplayer" doesn't extend to co-op.

Edit: ok, so there'll be co-op; 2-player local and 4-player online. Push Square, of all places, had the info. Come on now, PX 🙄

@Questionable_Duck No need, the new Xbox will be able to install the PC versions of those games.

@TheGameThrifter I'd ask myself that question more often if I didn't already own an Xbox. Though if rumors about the next console are true (and it sounds like they are) I may just rip off the band-aid and stop buying Xbox.

@TheGameThrifter
Exactly.
The next generation will be very interesting. If Xbox continues with the multi platform route then I think their future will be a publisher only. It makes no sense to buy an Xbox when you can play the same games on PS6 plus Sonys exclusives.
Unless Sony go multi platform too.?
But the winning platforms this gen are the ones with exclusives.

@DesertRanger @RBRTMNZ I would much rather buy and download God of War from the Microsoft Store rather than have to go through hoops to play it on Steam.

Either way, that wasn't really the point I was trying to make with my first comment. Playing tentpole PlayStation games through Steam on the next Xbox is cool and all, but that isn't hell freezing over. In order for hell to freeze over, you need PlayStation games like God of War, The Last of Us, Ghost of Yotei, etc. on the Xbox store, and preferably with native Xbox ports. That would be the real shock, not playing Steam games.

Basically they have to all be like Helldivers 2's Xbox port in order to count as a "hell freezing over" moment.

It's clear that Sony does have plans to bring more games to Xbox (including the Xbox Series X/S), but the question is, will they bring their tentpole titles over, such as the singleplayer ones? Only time will tell.

Remember that Sony's games will be available on PC and maybe on Xbox. I can't see people switching because of Xbox games being available on PS. It doesn't make any sense. They'd lose their whole library, save files, achievements... People that say so are already PS fans. You can see this when Helldivers was a big success on Xbox a year and a half later and when Forza Horizon 5 was a big success on PS5 4 years later. Console exclusives are over except on Nintendo systems.

Alright boys and girls, That’s it. Xbox is done for good. Halo going to be on PS5, Actually can’t believe this.

@TheGameThrifter All the 6th and 7th gen games it has that are stabilized and enhanced? Plus FPS Boost.

It truly is the end of an era. This was the last hurdle: Halo; the original Xbox system seller. It’s on PlayStation. There’s no coming back from this.

You are assuming that people can afford or want the handheld, @RBRTMNZ, or indeed, will be able to afford the next Xbox.

Truthfully, if people are that desperate to play these PlayStation games, then the cheaper option over owning the handheld is to by a PS5. Heck, even the PS5 Pro is cheaper than the handheld, and the PS6 is likely to be greatly cheaper than the next Xbox, if the rumours (and the Premium quote) are to be believed...

in football terms this is an own goal

Price is gonna be a big factor with no Multiplayer. CE Anniversary didn't have it either, but that was a $40 game, and even then it came with a DLC Pack for Reach's Multiplayer. Even if it's $50, they just released Gears 1 with the Campaign and Multiplayer for $40. So IDK how they're gonna market this.

@Banjo- People are switching to PlayStation daily. There are less and less reasons to invest in Xbox. I love Xbox but you have to realise that they’ve been incompetent for a long time.

This was a brand that gave little ground to Sony for a long time. The rivalry was so intense that back at the launch of Xbox One you couldn’t even search for PlayStation or PS4 via Bing. Microsoft disabled it. That seems like a lifetime ago now. Xbox is pretty much done.

As for PlayStation bringing their games over to Xbox, they might do but they certainly don’t need to considering they’re getting hardcore Xbox gamers coming over to them on a daily basis.

Lazy, pointless cashgrab. It was probably made by AI also.

PlayStation games maybe playable on the PCBox, but that is not the same as them being native on the Xbox. You won't get achievements, for example (well, not for the Xbox, though Steam does have achievements), and Steam does not have quick resume either.

In all honesty, I can see people switching to the PS6 next generation. You don't need to lose access to your Xbox library if you also keep your existing Xbox console. Likely as not the PS6 will be greatly cheaper than the PCBox too, plus you then get full access to Sony's exclusives, and get to earn trophies for them too. 😂

Anyone that chooses to go to PlayStation next generation, rather than sticking with Xbox, is not necessarily a fan of PlayStation at all right now. After all, why would they be playing on an Xbox right now, and not on a PlayStation, if they are a PlayStation fan?!? No. Anyone that chooses to leave Xbox behind on the next generation will probably be leaving because of the decisions that Microsoft are making right now. Massive price hikes on consoles and subscriptions, lurching from crisis to crisis, and then bringing out a 'console' that sounds like it will be hugely expensive. Yes, it may well be a very capable piece of kit, but it will likely also be the cost of a PS6 and a Series X combined, and whilst if you were to buy both you wouldn't have access to Steam that way, you would easily have all your console needs covered!

Personally, I continue to think that people have got carried away with the significance of the release of Helldivers 2 on the Xbox. The game is a Live Service game and it needs to have as many people as possible playing it, so bringing it to the Xbox was a matter of necessity in order for it to thrive.

When Sony bring over their big tentpole single-player titles to the Xbox, then, and only then, can we say that Sony has fully abandoned exclusivity, and there have been no signs that they are intending to do that at present, no matter how some might wish it to be so. Even were Sony to bring their tentpole games to the Xbox, I bet it will be years, probably a decade or more, before we see them releasing their tentpole games day and date on both the PlayStation and the Xbox. I've said it before, but people have become overly excited since the arrival of Helldivers 2, full of wishful thinking that can lead to disappointment only...

@Banjo-
"Maybe it's his nod to games crossing platforms combined with PS games literally melting your face off on the Pro."

Ah, doesn't seem that momentous now. Maybe 18 months ago it would have seemed a bigger deal.

Lol, the author getting mixed up with literally and virtually. Or perhaps if you sit too close to that PS5 fan blasting out heat 😂

@ElectricWizard Please, fasten your seat belts. We are getting ready for takeoff. 🤪😂

@Fiendish-Beaver You’re assuming what I am assuming. I didn’t assume anything about what people will or will not buy. I said that you can currently play the Sony games listed in a different comment on an Xbox and you can do so. What I said was factual and devoid of any assumptions.

@Tyrant_T103 I agree with you on that. I wish it was already out.

@Questionable_Duck I think it’s a lot closer to he’ll freezing over than you’re giving it credit. I think that if Sony really wanted to prevent this they could do so but they have chosen to allow it to happen because they want to have their games on Xbox but don’t want to upset their most loyal fans. I think they are very happy to have the back door option for Xbox players both for the additional profits and to normalize having their games on Xbox so that it’s not as big of a deal when (not if but when) they decide to start dropping them on Xbox natively.

And 343 sorry Hollow Studios inability to release a full halo game strikes again, its even worse this time as bungie already didva huge chunk of the work for this release. Could not give less of a ***** for this pointless graphics up date

Dumb name, good game. I'm all for it. Multiplayer would be welcome or even better, have this be DLC for Infinite and we'd gobble it up and pay for new skins anyway

@BacklogBrad well they wanted to go all in on the common class Toyota Corolla unreal engine. So I see this as a proof of concept that they can use this common class engine going forward. A shame really.

@Questionable_Duck nah Sony doesn’t have to do this just because MS decided to make more money because of subsidized gamepass not working as planned. Sony will hold it cards as exclusives still matter. And even more so now as the next Xbox increases its library due to the hybrid PC model. So Sony has to lure people into its hardware which will be weaker. So they have their work cut out for them. And they cannot afford to do what MS has done by being 3rd party due to their market position since Xbox one. It should be interesting next generation between Sony and MS.

I see a lot of complaints about a remaster of a remake of a remaster. Where you are correct it’s showing what direction halo is going (using Unreal Engine) so I’m here for it. Also 4
Player co-op on Heroic here I come with some friends!

I can't wait for this!
Halo and PGR were the games I bough tthe original Xbox with from Dixons!, wow, how time has flown..

@Fiendish-Beaver

Yes, it may well be a very capable piece of kit, but it will likely also be the cost of a PS6 and a Series X

I hear you old timer 😉, but I think we have to wait and see how Sony will price their next-gen iteration in the absence of any competition in the high end walled garden console ecosystem. You of course might be right, but I'm not so sure.

Sweet, will be awesome!

@Vaako007 Well, Sony already hired a multiplatform manager in order to bring games to Xbox and Nintendo consoles, so it's clear that they are doing this. I'm sure the PlayStation division has some infinite growth goals to reach as well, which is why they are doing this.

The question is, as I said before, will they bring the flagship singleplayer titles to Xbox? Because, as of right now, we don't know.

@Questionable_Duck Well if the next Xbox does indeed get the Steam Store as rumours state, then that may just happen… and ironically Nintendo with its funny yet cool little hybrid console, will be the only one with true exclusives and will still outsell both PlayStation and Xbox combined lol.

@ElectricWizard I would think the context would be rather obvious here. Halo coming to PlayStation. AKA something no one until recently thought would ever happen.

…is “hell freezing over” not a phrase used in other parts of the world?

@Questionable_Duck

The question is, as I said before, will they bring the flagship singleplayer titles to Xbox?

I guess that's about as likely as wining the lottery or some other mad statistic😁.
As an owner of a PS5 I'm covered for the few franchises I'm interested in from ND and SM. But there are plenty Xbox folk who would play some of their sp games if tha would ever come to pass.

@dskatter
Hadn't noticed, not really the point of the article at all.

You make a good point, @Sol4ris. Without the Xbox console to restrain the pricing of the PS6, and with PlayStation having dominated the market for the past two generations, Sony may feel they can unashamedly push the price up. Time will indeed tell...

@Fiendish-Beaver
And they already fleece the Playstation faithful with the closed garden on digital purchases.

How they continue to get away with that practice, I don't know.

Absolutely, @ElectricWizard! As an example (that I have said a few times now), I recently bought Outer Worlds 2 Premium Edition from Loaded (formerly CDKeys) for £56, saving myself £34 on the price that is on sale for on the Xbox Store and the PlayStation Store. If you are gaming on the PlayStation, you do not have the option of saving that £34. It's buy it at full price or wait for a sale...

@RBRTMNZ I may be being stupid/naive but what incentive would Sony have to make native Xbox versions of their games (which I assume would cost them money) if they know Xbox players will just be able to purchase them through Steam?

@ElectricWizard That's right. The price of the software has a bigger impact on the current account of customers than the price of a piece of hardware per generation, which is also why I don't believe Xbox fans will switch, unless they go to PC and keep their libraries, achievements and save clouds. Moreover, they'd lose access to Game Pass as it's not available on PS and Game Pass is a money saver if they like playing new releases.

@Sol4ris I agree. Unless Sony does a Nintendo and PS6 sports last-gen technology, PS6 won't be cheap.

@Llamageddon There are several reasons and evidences:

1) Sony hiring a team for PC and Xbox ports, naming Xbox specifically.

2) The new CEOs of Sony being the opposite of Jim Ryan, which means no console warriors and not emotionally attached to the concept of PS "pedigree" games being exclusive.

3) If Sony makes Windows ports of PS games, they are making Xbox ports in the process, because Xbox runs on a custom version of Windows with DirectX included, and supposedly the next Xbox will run the same gaming version of Windows as PC games.

4) Easy money.

The console war is over, PS vs XBOX is a thing of the past. But still: Halo on the PS5. That's what was missing for the final sellout.

@Mingus it truly is. Absolutely shocking what’s happened to Xbox but the execs can take all the blame

@Coletrain Id agree with the assessment of 5. Similar to the last gears game to be honest. Good game, not really a series feel though.

2 and 3 are excellent games to me as well. Really, just 1 was kinda meh.

@Llamageddon In order to make them available to as many people as possible. It doesn't seem like XBox is very close to making the steam experience on Windows as seemless as it needs to be and some people are not going to want to fiddle with it. I suppose if the Xbox install base craters in the next gen they wont do that but I think if 30-40 million people buy the new console then it makes sense.

@Runex2121 I can't understand remaking 1 like this without multiplayer. Given that MS just want loads of money, this without MP seems pointless!

@Coletrain pure speculation, but Im thinking they are going to release this as a full price title and then release halo:multiplayer evolved later as another full release title. Double dipping for the same game.

@RBRTMNZ fair enough, thank you for the polite and reasoned response

@Runex2121 yeah that would make more sense, do it as a F2P like infinite MP

@Coletrain They want 30% margins, I think mp may be 39.99 or 29.99 and have MTs like a live service game

@Fiendish-Beaver @Banjo- @Coletrain @Cakefish
What I fined strange with Xbox is according to what I have read FH6 will not be day one PS5.
Why do halo and not FH6.
Especially as FH5 did well on PS5.

@OldGamer999 probably was too far into development before the sudden switch to multiplatform focus 1.5 years ago, so the PlayStation version simply needs more time to bake in the oven and they don’t want to delay purely for the sake of simultaneous launch. We saw the exact same situation happen with Indiana Jones recently. Meanwhile, the likes of Gears of War Remaster, Halo Remake, and The Outer Worlds 2 aren’t as large, complex projects so could release day and date on PS5. This is my theory.

@Cakefish
Yep a good theory if there is a logical answer to those at Microsoft 🤣

@OldGamer999 well it could also be that, despite proclaiming exclusives to be completely antiquated and that modern players don’t care about them, they secretly behind the scenes don’t actually believe in what they are preaching. So they pick and choose certain games to be intentional timed exclusives. This wouldn’t really make sense, as it flies squarely in the face of their recent public statements saying that multiplatform is the best thing since sliced bread, but who knows anymore with Xbox leadership? I choose to believe the theory about it being a matter of resources, but ultimately if it turns out that they simply aren’t being honest in their public statements - well it wouldn’t be all that shocking anymore lol

@Cakefish
I’m not to sure really, but it is what it is.
Also I’ve given up thinking about it to hard exclusive wise.

I think now more mellow and people can chose to play on what console they wish with some Xbox games and either pay or use a subscription.

Financially because I have GPU stacked until March 2027 it is great for me.
Also as you know I enjoy quick resume so much and the Xbox controller ergonomically more the dualsense, so it works out good for my Xbox studio games.
Also 2026 should be a really good Xbox studio year.

@OldGamer999 I think that there is not one reason but it's a complex situation. Some people say that Phil Spencer lied about the four games, but he just didn't know beyond those. Like I said some days ago, the communication between Microsoft's bigwigs and the Xbox bosses does not seem fluent and it's like they don't work as a team, but receive regular emails with already made decisions. If you look at Phil's face lately, he seems more frustrated than when he was pioneering the Xbox One S and Xbox One X. He now accepted that the big decisions are made by people like Satya "Scrooge McDuck" Nadella.

Some Xbox games performed quite well on PS5, others not so much. Microsoft obviously prioritise Xbox and now PC with Play Anywhere. It was reported that the studios (Bethesda) also decide what platforms they want to publish on, although I think it's probably the big bosses that really green-light or propose what games should be ported. Port this game, don't port this game, port this game after the Xbox version, etc. This is not consistent for PS fans, but they are not Microsoft's priority.

Next generation the big business of Xbox will be Xbox and PC, and probably mobile and Cloud. PC is the biggest market (outside the mobile casual market) and PS5 is extra money but a different OS and a smaller market. Nintendo Switch is old technology and people don't buy as many third-party as first-party games on there, but we will probably see some Xbox ports on Switch, too.

And yes, there were droughts in the past, but 2024 was great on Xbox, 2025 is great too and 2026 is looking as good so far. Despite the doom and gloom, that it's more an online bubble than a real thing, numbers say that the Xbox business is growing and next generation will probably be bigger with a more focused strategy, at full throttle on Xbox, Xbox on PC, Game Pass and Cloud. That will ultimately benefit their studios and gamers on all platforms, because of the bigger Xbox ecosystem.

@ElectricWizard You responded to my comment with a ?, so I clarified. You’re welcome.

@OldGamer999 my Game Pass is stacked until early March next year. The end is fast approaching! I looked at the numbers and it’s currently £9/month to renew for 15 months at current conversion rates and prices. That’s not too bad, so I may well take that option if 2026 ends up being as stacked as they’re currently promising it to be. We’ll see! If not I’ll simply downgrade to Essential.

My XSX is going nowhere for the remainder of this generation. I love this console, exclusives or no. My beef with multiplatform is regarding my major concerns about the long term sustainability of a closed platform that has no exclusive content. Of course, the rumours are staying that the next Xbox will actually be an open platform as it’ll be merged with Windows PC - and obviously Xbox leadership are strongly hinting that this is their plan too. So an open Xbox that can access Steam while also having backwards compatibility with all the console games (already confirmed) resolves all my concerns about long term viability of the platform and would be absolutely perfect for me!

@OldGamer999 putting my tin hat in, Forza Horizon 6 will be by far Xbox' best launch in the last 3 gens, and it's designed to push a few last ditch console sales. There's no reason they couldn't delay the game slightly to finish a ps5 port, so what else can it be?

@Coletrain Forza Horizon 6 will definitely push Xbox hardware and Game Pass on console and on PC, because it won't be on Steam either. Maybe it will push Cloud in Asia.

@Banjo- I can't think of any other good reason why they'd delay the ps5 launch. It's that big a game really. Not GTA VI level don't get me wrong, but whatever the next rung down on the ladder is

@Coletrain Actually, I was thinking about GTA VI also pushing some Series S units, if that version ends up playing well.

No loyalty whatsoever anymore. It's all about the money. Microsoft (the company that is currently worth four trillion dollars) is struggling financially, which is why they are doing this. Lol. Pathetic trash company that once had my two favorite consoles - the O.G. Xbox and the 360. I will just enjoy the memories and use my Series X as a dvd player and classic games console.

@Questionable_Duck I see your point.