Nearly 25 years after we first got a taste of the iconic Halo franchise, Halo Studios (previously 343 Industries) is taking the franchise back to where it all began. Today ahead of the Halo Championship Series, the studio announced Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the 2001 Combat Evolved. And for the first time ever the series will be coming to PlayStation consoles in 2026.
The remake had been rumored for months now, with the studio bringing the game to life on Unreal Engine 5. It is the assumption that Halo Studios will be using this engine going forward after having some issues with its own Slipspace Engine for Halo Infinite. Using a remake of the first ever Halo game is a smart move to get used to Unreal Engine 5 and is also an easy way to bring PlayStation fans to the series.
The Remake will also include 3 prequel missions that take place before the events of Combat Evolved featuring Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson. It will feature both single player and co-op. Local co-op will be 2 players while online co-op will feature up to 4 players. Campaign Evolved will also feature 9 iconic Halo weapons from all the games over the years.
Interestingly, the remake is only going to be the campaign of Combat Evolved. It’s a curious decision, but perhaps they don’t want to split the community and keep the online community with Halo Infinite until a sequel is released.
This will be the third iteration of Halo: Combat Evolved over the years. In 2011 then 343 Industries cut their teeth with the Halo franchise with the Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary edition. At the time the anniversary edition was considered a remaster that brought the game to the popular Xbox 360 console.
Later it was part of the Master Chief Collection that launched on the Xbox One console. This means that Halo: Combat Evolved will have been released on every single Xbox console every created in some form. That tells you just how important a game, and franchise it is for Xbox.
One Of The Greatest Games In History
Halo: Combat Evolved remains one of the greatest games of all time. Developed by Bungie in 2001 it sits at a 97 on Metacritic which makes it tied for the 4th highest rated game in history. The game went on to sell millions of copies and is credited with being Xbox’s flagship game and what really put Xbox on the map as a gaming company.
What this means for future Halo games will also be interesting. With the Remake coming to PlayStation for the first time ever, it marks the end of one of gaming’s most iconic exclusive franchises and characters. Master Chief is to Xbox what Mario is to Nintendo. Some thought we’d never see this day, but with Xbox’s shift in strategy, anything is possible.
