Microsoft Announces Halo: Combat Evolved Remake for 2026, Confirms Halo Games Are Coming to PS5

Microsoft announced Halo: Campaign Evolved, a full remake of the first Halo game, on Friday. The Xbox parent also confirmed that the remake would launch on PlayStation alongside Xbox and PC in 2026, finally breaking the exclusivity of its flagship first-party franchise. Halo: Campaign Evolved will feature the campaign of Halo: Combat Evolved rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5.

Halo Studios confirmed the rumoured remake at Halo World Championship 2025, which took place October 24-26. The developer, formerly known as 343 Industries, debuted a trailer for Halo: Campaign Evolved and showcased features in a 13-minute gameplay demo.

Halo: Campaign Evolved Features

Halo: Campaign Evolved is a full remake of the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign, built in Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5. The game will feature remastered 4K visuals, updated animations, familiar Halo weapons and vehicles, remastered music, re-recorded voice lines, and new story content. The remake will be a “modern evolution” of the story of Halo Combat: Evolved, featuring three new bonus campaign missions, Microsoft said in an Xbox Wire post on Friday.

There are some new co-op features, too. Halo: Campaign Evolved will support the original two-player local split screen experience on consoles, and, for the first time, up to four-player online co-op across Xbox Series S/X, PC, and PS5.

“We wanted to start where it all began, with the original campaign that defined Halo,” Halo Studios executive producer Damon Conn said. “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.

“Focusing on the campaign experience means we can concentrate fully on really capturing the atmosphere, tone – the emotional impact of what made the first campaign so special and iconic.”

The remake will feature nine additional weapons from the Halo franchise, including the Energy Sword, Battle Rifle, and Needle Rifle. Players will be able to hijack vehicles and pilot the Covenant Wraith tank for the first time in Halo: Campaign Evolved. The game will also add an optional sprint mechanic.

Halo: Campaign Evolved will launch across Xbox Series S/X, Xbox app on PC, Steam, and PS5 in 2026. It will support Xbox Cloud Gaming and Xbox Play Anywhere and will be available day one with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Halo: Campaign Evolved will feature new 4K visuals
Photo Credit: Microsoft/ Halo Studios

Halo, Other Xbox First-Party Games Coming to PS5

At Halo World Championship, Halo Studios also confirmed that the iconic Xbox first-party franchise would release on PlayStation beyond Halo: Campaign Evolved, as well. The studio's community director Brian Jarrard said Halo on PlayStation was “a long time coming.”

“As a community guy, I know the Halo community is super excited to welcome in their friends as well. It's just going to mean more Halo for everyone. It's really a new era. Halo is on PlayStation going forward, starting with Halo: Campaign Evolved,” Jarrard said during the livestream.

Halo is Microsoft's most enduring and popular first-party franchise. Halo: Combat Evolved practically put the original Xbox on map when it released in 2001. While the Xbox parent has been aggressively pursuing a multiplatform launch strategy over the past year, bringing its exclusive games to PS5, Halo had been the holdout even as legacy franchises as Gears of War and Forza confirmed PlayStation launches.

However, the company had suggested over time that Halo would eventually release on PS5. Last year in November, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer told Bloomberg that he wouldn't rule out any game in Microsoft's stable from making the jump to rival platforms from Sony or Nintendo. “I do not see sort of red lines in our portfolio that say, ‘thou must not,'” he said at the time, but added that it was too early to make any sort of decision on the next version of Halo.

Earlier this year, Spencer hinted the return of Halo: Combat Evolved at Xbox Games Showcase in June. The Xbox boss didn't mention the game by name, but said 2026 would mark the “return of a classic that's been with us since the beginning.”