Besides being the Xbox's 25th Anniversary (which will kick off later this week with a new Xbox Developer Direct), 2026 will also mark the glorious return of the franchise most closely associated with Microsoft's gaming brand. Revealed last year, Halo Campaign Evolved will provide both returning and new players with the opportunity to experience the beginnings of a series that has had a lasting impact on first-person shooters while also marking the series' debut on PlayStation 5.
Allowing PlayStation players to experience the series for the first time on their preferred platform is part of a wider strategy that goes beyond simply selling the game to more customers. However, the community remains highly skeptical that Halo Campaign Evolved will be able to knit the Halo community tighter, given that it lacks the one core component that has defined the series since the release of the original game: multiplayer.
Speaking with GamesRadar during a recent preview event where the outlet tried out the Unreal Engine 5-powered remake of the first entry in the series, Halo Studios Executive Producer Damon Conn commented on the positive impact the developer hopes the game will have on the community.
"We hope to bring along the series veterans who have been with us for the past 25 years and have them play with an entirely new generation," said Conn before confirming four-player online co-op with full crossplay support. "There are people who have never been exposed to Halo. Maybe they've always been on Sony products, switched consoles at a certain point, or just missed it at the time. We want to bring players back together."
Creative Director Max Szlagor echoed this sentiment. "Halo is best played when we have a large, healthy community. We see this as a way to grow, expand, and reconnect the Halo community."
While online co-op with full cross-platform play support is definitely a great feature to have to foster and grow the Halo community, fans remain as skeptical as they were back when it was confirmed that Combat Evolved multiplayer wouldn't have been remade.
"It’s a bold claim to reconnect with the Halo community without multiplayer," said GamesRadar user Jeremy Cox, a sentiment that continues to be widespread in the community. A sentiment that is likely the reason why Halo Studios is feeling the weight of honoring "the Halo legacy on PlayStation", and "paving the way to expand our Halo universe" with Halo Campaign Evolved.
Considering how some fans of the series have been left jaded by Halo Infinite, the continued skepticism and the enduring disappointment over the lack of multiplayer in Campaign Evolved remain justified. Even someone like me, who has only casually played the series over the years, knows through friends who are hardcore Halo fans how central competitive multiplayer is to the Halo experience and how important it is to the community.
Hopefully, the remake of the first entry in the series, being as "incomplete" as it is in the eyes of many fans, is just an unfortunate consequence of focusing on creating the proper, next-generation Halo multiplayer experience, which may not have properly fit the Campaign Evolved package.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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