“Halo Campaign Evolved” is the second remake of the revolutionary 2001 title. Photo credit: Xbox
The biggest conceivable boundary in the console war between PlayStation and Xbox will fall in 2026, as a remake of the groundbreaking Xbox game “Halo” will release on PlayStation 5.
Announced Friday at the Halo World Championship, “Halo Campaign Evolved” is a remake of the single-player story of “Halo: Combat Evolved,” the 2001 game made by former Xbox studio and now PlayStation-owned Bungie. Microsoft retained rights to the franchise, and this new remake is being developed by the tech giant’s in-house Halo Studios. It releases sometime in 2026 for Xbox, PS5 and PC platforms.
This is the second revamp of the classic game that helped define the first-person shooter genre beyond the PC. This release is notable for launching simultaneously on Sony’s platform, a clear sign of Xbox’s retreat from console exclusivity, a strategy now maintained only by Nintendo among the major players. Earlier this year, the PS5 received a remake of the first Gears of War, another former Xbox exclusive. Halo was Microsoft’s signature gaming franchise, the series that established its once-ambitious entry into the video game industry as both serious and successful. This crossover, once as inconceivable as Nintendo making a Mario game for PlayStation, is now an economic reality as Microsoft reportedly chases higher profit margins in its gaming business.
“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,” executive producer Damon Conn said in a news release.
New features include three new missions set before the events of the story, promising new enemies, environments and characters. It will also include four-player cooperative play, along with new visuals using Unreal Engine, the toolset used by countless other game developers. (The Halo series was previously created with proprietary technology, which made development difficult for new hires forced to learn in-house tools.)
“Halo Campaign Evolved” will introduce three new story missions that take place before the 2001 narrative. Photo credit: Xbox
A prerelease build, played by The Washington Post, showcases “The Silent Cartographer,” a level featuring the wide-open battlefields and indoor-outdoor environments that made the game a classic. The game will change the nature of battles by introducing sprinting and pulling the L trigger to aim every gun down its sights. Weapons from other games in the series like the battle rifle and needle rifle are now included, adding some continuity in the technology used across the United Nations Space Command forces. Master Chief, the iconic protagonist of the series, also gets a makeover, with redone cinematic scenes.
Halo Studios says it’s also reimagining “The Library,” a level infamous for repetitive gameplay. The new game promises new lines of dialogue and better “environmental storytelling” to help with the pacing.
The new game aims for a photorealistic look programmed on top of the original code and systems of the 2001 game. It also preserves the original audio and dialogue, including the score by composer Marty O’Donnell.
The studio says its project was formed through user research studies and Microsoft’s Halo Insider fan feedback program.
“The campaign has been rebuilt to feel handcrafted and immersive, true to what players remember, not just visually, but emotionally,” said Conn in the release.
