Halo: Campaign Evolved is the final nail in the coffin of Xbox exclusives — but the fact that a PS5 version is coming isn’t a surprise
Blog Andrew Joseph 25 Oct , 2025 0
Halo, once the flagship video game exclusive to Xbox and Microsoft's first video game for the console, has finally made the jump. Microsoft has announced that Halo: Campaign Evolved – a remastered version of the original game's campaign – will be available on PlayStation 5 on day one.
The Unreal Engine 5 remaster of the 2001 campaign, developed by Bungie, will launch in 2026 on PC, Xbox Series X and S, and most importantly, PS5. This is the first new Halo game since 2021's Halo Infinite and the first Halo game to be released on the PlayStation console. IGN played Halo: Campaign Evolved and have all the details hereincluding the first information about a new three-mission prequel storyline. Yes, in case you were wondering, there's cross-platform play, meaning Xbox, PC and PlayStation users can play Halo co-op together for the first time.
Halo: Campaign Evolved was the final nail in the coffin of Xbox exclusives, despite the fact that the shooter series' release on PlayStation wasn't a surprise. Xbox Game Studios is already one of the most prolific and successful publishers on PlayStation, and just this week Xbox president Sarah Bond calls the idea of exclusive games 'outdated' So Microsoft's thoughts on this are very clear.
But what's driving Microsoft's multi-platform push? the latest one Bloomberg The report says Microsoft is pushing for Xbox Studios to offer 30% profit margins – well above the industry average – and one of the ways studios can help make more money is by releasing games on rival platforms such as PlayStation and Nintendo Switch as well as PC.
Shawn Layden, former president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, is a prominent critic of the exclusive. said last year that when a video game costs more than $200 million, “exclusivity is your Achilles heel.”
“It reduces your addressable market,” Leyden told game beatbefore citing the success of Arrowhead Hellraiser 2launched on PlayStation 5 and PC to explosive success. “Especially when you're in the world of live-service games or free-to-play games. Another platform is just another way to open the funnel and get more people to join. As we know, in the world of free-to-play games, 95% of people will never spend a dime. The key to business is conversion. You have to improve your odds by opening the funnel. Helldivers 2 has proven this to PlayStation while launching on PC. Again, your funnel gets wider. You get more people coming in.”
Redden said single-player and multiplayer games share similar audience considerations, although not exactly the same. “For single-player games, it's different,” he said. “But if you spend $250 million, you want to be able to sell it to as many people as possible, even if it's just 10 percent more.”
Layden's comments echo those of former Xbox boss Peter Moore. Recently interviewed by IGN It is suggested that Microsoft will internally discuss whether to release the Xbox poster work Halo on PlayStation.
“If Microsoft says, wait a minute, we're making $250 million on our platform, but if we make Halo a third party, we can make $1 billion… you have to really think about that, right?” Moore said. “I mean, you have to go, yeah, should it be kept? It's an intellectual property. It's more than just a game. How do you leverage that? These are conversations that happen all the time, how do you leverage that in everything we do?”
Microsoft's stance on exclusive games has become one of the hottest topics in the Xbox community, and now that we know Halo is coming to PlayStation, the discussion is only going to get more heated. Microsoft's approach contrasts sharply with that of Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo has the toughest policy on its games, releasing them only on its consoles. Sony has softened its strategy in recent years, releasing multiplayer live service games on PC simultaneously with PlayStation (Hellraiser 2 was eventually released on Xbox). But Sony still refuses to launch its big single-player games anywhere but PlayStation on day one (the latest example being Sucker Punch's Ghost of Yotei).
Now that “Campaign Evolved” has been confirmed to be released on PS5, there is no turning back for “Halo”. In fact, as of today, Halo appears to be both a PlayStation and Xbox game. “This is truly a new era,” Halo community director Brian Jarrard said tonight during a panel discussion at the 2025 Halo World Championship. “Halo will be moving forward on PlayStation, starting with Halo: Campaign Evolved.”
Be sure to check it out Everything announced at Halo Studios' Halo: Campaign Evolved panel to learn more.
Wesley is IGN News Director. Find him on Twitter: @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or privately at [email protected].