Halo: Combat Evolved Remaster Reportedly in Development, Could Come to PS5

A new remaster of Halo: Combat Evolved is reportedly in the works at Xbox and it might be bound for PlayStation 5 consoles. Prior to ever releasing Halo: The Master Chief Collection, the original game in the series, Combat Evolved, was remastered in 2011 for Xbox 360 as Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Now, some 13 years later, it sounds as though a new remaster of Halo: CE might be in the pipeline, although details on this re-release are still quite sparse. 

According to a new report from The Verge, Microsoft is working on a remaster in “some form” for Halo: Combat Evolved. This potential remaster is said to be in its “early days” of development, which means that this isn’t a project that Xbox would look to unveil at its forthcoming showcase on Sunday, June 9th. Still, if this Combat Evolved remaster does see the light of day, it’s said to be in consideration for other platforms with PlayStation 5 specifically being mentioned. 

Over the past few months, Xbox has started to slowly bring over many of its first-party exclusives to other consoles. To this point, we’ve seen titles like Grounded, Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment release across Nintendo and PlayStation hardware. The assumption is that this will be part of a larger initiative from Microsoft to make its Xbox games more widely available and drive sales for older titles that have since existed on Xbox and PC platforms for quite some time. 

In the immediate future, it’s not known what might happen with the Halo franchise. The most recent installment in the series, Halo Infinite, continues to be supported by developer 343 Industries and happened to receive a major drop of new content this week. However, with Infinite now nearing its three-year anniversary, fans are beginning to wonder what Xbox might look to do next with its flagship property. In all certainty, a new mainline Halo game will come about eventually, but this remaster of Combat Evolved might serve as a stopgap until that entry. Either way, more information on the future of Xbox and Halo might be divulged this weekend when Xbox provides a more detailed roadmap for its first-party studios.